Keeping Quiet
by DemonUntilDeath
Summary: A new mission has come up, but this time they didn't get a choice in the matter. Thrown into the war between wizards and humans, the gang must find a way to survive in a world where demons are slaves killed without question. HPYYH Yaoi.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer**: Neither Harry Potter, nor Yu Yu Hakusho are owned by me.

**Story Notes**: Wow, yet another YYH-Harry Potter crossover to add to the thousands out there. I hope to put an original spin on it.

-o-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

Prologue

-o-o-o-o-

_The pale moon was his only source of light, filtering through the loosely coated pine trees, casting eerie, but almost serene shadows across the pine and leaf strewn ground. _

_Small vegetation popped up at the base of the dark trunks, both of a deep bark and a shadowed nature. The tall trees sprouted between the grey, shale rock that fragmented beneath his feet. They skittered across the ground as he walked, feet quite against everything else._

_He brushed branches aside as they tried to scratch at his pale, fragile skin. The pine trees itched to reach out to him, as if calling for an end to what had not yet begun. He wanted to snarl at them, burn them away with his wishes._

_Pushing his way through to the last of the trees, he found himself standing but ten feet from a cliff, an amazing canyon spread out before him in darker shades of purple and grey, pronounced most by the shimmering light of the moon._

_Before him, not two yards from the edge of the shale cliff sat a single upright stone, its back smoothly rounded to a half sphere, while its front had been shaved smooth. The lighter grey of the surface bore only one thing._

_It was a symbol of a nature that he recognized, though not of his own knowledge. A small voice in his head, far and distant, the slight hiss of a snake added on to the end his only clue._

_This was a symbol of the dead and the demonic. _

_It was a symbol long forgotten._

_One to awaken the Messenger of the Netherworld._

-o-o-o-o-

On the other side of the world, in a dark bedroom filled with the loud but abrupt snores of a redheaded, freckled Weasly, Harry Potter woke with a scream as pain lanced through his scar.

-o-o-o-o-

**End Prologue**

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Please review if you would.


	2. The Summons

**Disclaimer**: I still own nothing.

**Notes**: I'm working on my other stories, too, don't worry. I just have very little time, and I'm a very lazy person.

Those two things don't mix so well!

**Warning**: Bit of shonen-ai flirting (not much) and one single long line of swearing. All from one contributor, too.

-o-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 1_

The Summons

-o-o-o-o-

Kurama gave a light sigh as his foot took the last step, arriving on the landing of the temple stairs. The heat was exquisite that day, dampening his skin. His loose clothing hung to him uncomfortably, sticking to his skin and catching with every movement. Sweat occasionally rolled down his skin, inviting his bangs to plaster to his forehead.

The thought of getting to the temple and out of the ridiculous summer heat was enough motivation to get him walking towards the holy grounds. His brow furled as he neared, however. Koenma had been here (_been_ being the key word) and Genkai was no longer. The fox sighed. He'd come all the way up the damn steps, right through the very heart of the woods that had given him some desire to come through the blazing heat and all for nothing it would seem.

But the temple still offered some relief despite the absence of his journey's purpose. So Kurama continued on his way towards the temple, feet silent on the stones beneath his shoes. He headed for the courtyard garden, the entrance closest to Genkai's kitchen.

He didn't think the old master would mind him entering unannounced.

Besides, if his senses weren't fooling him, he'd find company there.

He rounded the corner to find his senses true; Yusuke was sitting on the edge of the porch, legs bent and supported by the side of the wood. With his legs bent up, he was hunched over, arms lying loosely atop his knees and a cigarette fingered idly in his right hand.

Looking up, he gave a nod in Kurama's direction, included with a smirk, before he took a long drag of the cigarette. The fox sighed and walked over to him, not approving of the habit. He stopped in front of the detective and jumped up beside him, sitting in a similar position that held much more grace and a lot less slouch.

"That habit of yours will be the death of you, Yusuke," the fox lightly commented as Yusuke blew out a puff of cloudy smoke. Kurama gave him an annoyed glance and waved it away.

"Eh, I'm sure Koenma'd let me come back," Yusuke replied jokingly as he lazily took another drag. He smirked at the explosion Koenma would display if Yusuke simply expected a resurrection. Kurama raised an eyebrow as he leaned over and snatched the cigarette from his friend's hand.

The detective blinked at his smoke-less hand slowly.

"Don't push your luck," the fox replied, crushing the butt out against the wooden slats of the porch. Yusuke only shrugged and managed to pull another out of his pocket, sliding it into his mouth. Kurama gave a scowl and grabbed the new offending object before it had even been lit. "Speaking of Koenma…He was here, ne?"

Yusuke glanced over to him, eying the unlit tobacco he wanted back. After a second, he smirked and nodded. "Yeah, Diaper-boy stopped by about ten minutes ago. Though, I doubt that's the real reason you're here."

Kurama chuckled lightly, the sound still amazing Yusuke in it's own lightness. "Not precisely. Is master Genkai present?"

"Nope." The answer was quick and easy, and Kurama gave a raised eyebrow once more. "And stop calling her master. She has enough ego as it is."

Kurama hid his smile politely behind his hand. "Well, do you know where I might find her?"

"Yeah," Yusuke gave a soft sigh, hand twitching slightly. Kurama didn't notice. "Koenma said something about needing her help in 'discussing the details of an upcoming mission with a foreign advocate,' whatever the hell that even means."

This time Kurama's raised eyebrow was joined by its twin before both furled in confusion. "Foreign advocate? That's…odd…that's very odd."

"So…" Yusuke began idly, his fingers fiddling with something in the pocket of his gray jacket. "What'd you want to see Grandma for?"

Kurama's frown turned to a look of barely concealed worry as his emerald eyes wandered to the forest. Yusuke's gaze turned from curiosity to interest at his friend's odd behavior.

He held back the urge to interrupt as Kurama slowly began, "Everything is in pain…" His voice was saddened and suddenly seemed exhausted. "The very energy of the earth is churning angrily, as if ripped from its roots. The plants' whispers have grown dark; their voices hushed and hissing with unseen strain."

The fox's eyes drew skyward. "It has been worsening all summer." He glanced at Yusuke and the detective was surprised and taken back to see that his voice now matched his appearance; exhaustion of both physical and emotion strength was evident. "And I have been suffering its effects."

The raven-haired teen was silent for a long time, contemplating his friend's words. When he could not come up with a comforting reply, he let out a long, low whistle and instead answered with, "You've got problems."

Yusuke's answer briefly surprised Kurama before a smile spread across his weary features, lighting them back up again with his laugh. The comfort of such a thing was enough to dispel his fears. "Thank you, Yusuke," he managed as his chuckles subsided to giggles hidden by a hand. "You are most helpful."

The detective smirked and lit the cigarette he had snuck out of his jacket pocket during Kurama's sorrowful explanation. He drew in a long breath of smoke before letting it out slowly. "It's what I'm here for," he began, noticing Kurama glaring at him again. He smirked. "But seriously, you think something's up?"

Kurama closed his eyes in brief agitation as he reached over and snatched the cigarette yet again. He held it between his fingers and opened his eyes to stare down at the drug. "Of course I do. It is well known that Flora and Fauna are the first to sense danger when it is on its impending way."

Yusuke, using (once more) his friend's distraction, grabbed the cigarette triumphantly and held it to his side, away from the fox who was once again glaring. "Who are Flo-whatever and Fa-whoevere? They two Shinto gods or something?"

Kurama gave an exasperated sigh and leaned behind Yusuke to steal back the damn drug with a thief's quickness. Yusuke blinked. He could easily follow the speed, but he rarely had to deal with a master thief's abilities.

"'Or something would be correct,' Yusuke. The words mean plants and animals. Have you ever once learned _any_thing in school?" the fox asked, moving the cigarette to his far side, keeping it from Yusuke. The teen snorted and gave up, once more reaching into his pocket.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes as he replied, "When I _did_ go? Nope, and I don't plan on changing that any time soon…" he frowned, trialing off as he turned the carton upside down, shaking it.

Nothing came out.

He turned to a smug fox and glared. Kurama only smiled as he reprimanded, "Ever think it's trying to tell you something?"

Yusuke growled with his scowling glare in place as he leaned over, trying to grab the unlit cigarette Kurama still held. The darker haired teen repeated his growl as he tried to grab his supply of nicotine back. "Yeah, it's telling me that an annoying fox is stealing all my smokes!"

Kurama was in mid laugh when a deep, distinguished voice suddenly cut through the light, bell-like sound. Its owner stood in front of them, having arrived unnoticed. "Will you two idiots stop fooling around like lovebirds?"

The comment immediately pulled the two apart, though more was attributed to the redhead than Yusuke, who just leisurely pulled away, smirking at Hiei the entire time, as if he knew something the fire demon didn't.

Which, of course, he did.

Hiei just rolled his eyes at the raven-haired leader of the tentai and turned to Kurama, who had seemingly found a very interesting rock to stare at somewhere near the fire demon's feet. Upon feeling the intensity of the youkai's glare, however, emerald green eyes glanced up and a small smile, boosted by a forced smile, was shown to the short hiyoukai.

"Hello, Hiei. Are you here to check up on Yukina?" Kurama asked politely, starting off the conversation as always. The fire demon stared at him for a long, hard moment, never blinking or moving those red hard orbs away.

Just as the fox was growing slightly nervous and self-conscious under that stare, Hiei glanced towards the forest and, ignoring his question, replied bluntly, "You look ill, fox."

Kurama just widened the smile a fraction of an inch, more so with the addition of more force then actual smile. "Yes, I wasn't aware if you could feel it too or no-"

"I feel it," came the fire demon's curt reply and Kurama's smile shrank slightly, showing more signs of strain. "But the effects are showing strongly on you…Hn, I should have known they would. You are a plant manipulator after all."

The youko only nodded, not sure how to reply to that and feeling like somewhat of a weakling under Hiei's scrutiny. Yusuke could feel the tense waves flowing off of Kurama in the form of nervousness and the fire demon, as always, seemed oblivious to it.

"Hey, lighten up man," Yusuke interrupted the two's silent warfare of, well, silence. "Kurama can't help what he is. Besides, if both of you feel it, then I know something's up. We should probably go see Koenma when we can."

The reincarnated fox nodded and lightly jumped from the porch, landing beside Hiei and tossing the cigarette to the floor where Yusuke mourned for its loss. Kurama turned to the fire demon beside him, who had once more gone back to regarding the youko's face with his hard red eyes.

"I agree," Kurama began. "Hiei, if you would just open a p-"

The fox never got to finish his sentence as he suddenly vanished, just like that. Without sound or warning, but for the slight widening of his emerald green eyes, Kurama disappeared before them as a mark erased off a paper.

Yusuke was on his feet in seconds and beside Hiei, who had already thrown his bandana to the winds, scourging where their friend had been not to seconds before.

-o-o-o-o-

Kurama gasped out, or tried to as he was shoved roughly to the ground. His stomach turned at the avid feeling of having someone take their clawed hand, shove it right behind the navel, and pull as hard as physically possible.

His chest muscles were convulsing, tightening on his lungs and making it harder and harder to breathe. He scrunched his eyes, only filled with flashing white and black lights, as he fought to grab in some more oxygen, to feed his screaming brain.

Hands grabbed at his arms, dull nails through thick gloves digging into his soft flesh. He cried out as he struggled against them, but his movements were weak and unappreciated, as seen by the tightening of his captors' grips and the harsh words spoken.

Kurama frowned; he recognized those words. They weren't Japanese, but he knew them…yes, they were English. As the pain of his navel slowly faded he focused his mind on ignoring his staggering breathes, his dragging captors, and ciphered through those words, remembering his years in school.

He got most of it, though he couldn't remember some of the words, and the sentence came out fragmented. "--, this girl is really piss-- me off!"

Before he could stop to ask himself why they were in an English-speaking location, or even why he was being referred to as a girl (which really wasn't that odd,) Kurama cried out in fear as something was placed over his face. He kicked out and received his kick back in the solar plexus. A groan stuck in his throat as his body went limp in reaction to the pain shooting through his nervous system.

A ribbon or some form of tie was pulled tightly behind his head, his crimson hair pulled sharply back in order to tuck the tie beneath his silky strands. It was apparent as he forced his eyes open, despite the disorienting spots flickering in his vision, that a mask had been put over his face.

There was no mouth piece, it seemed smooth from the inside and the eyeholes were covered by a black cloth, making it impossible to see anything while submerging him in a world of porcelain darkness.

Kurama cried out in anger and slight fear as the two holding him hoisted him up, pulling him up to something cold and hard. He cried out in frustration, kicking and pulling, doing everything to keep the two holding him from clasping manacles around his wrists.

The harsh clang of metal closing onto metal and the rusty, cold touch of its unwelcome grip on his wrists told him he had failed to stop them. Those hands released him and his entire weight fell upon the cuffs on his wrist. He screamed out as one cut into his skin, blood dripping down his left arm.

He screamed for them to release him as he kicked out, hoping to find someone with his blind shot. Cloth connected with his foot and he prepared for another kick but stopped as an angry cry ripped through the air around him.

He knew that cry.

"Kuwabara!" He shouted past his mask, his voice oddly muffled as his own breath, hot against his skin, was pushed back at him from the lack of an airway.

The cries silenced for a minute before an excited voice responded, though still clearly pissed at, what Kurama assumed, were men chaining him to a wall as well. "Kurama! Kurama, what's going on!"

The fox fought against the chains suspending him off the ground. "I don't know, Kuwabara, there's a mask over my eyes! Can you see?"

Kuwabara struggled as manacles were clasped around his wrists as well and he looked up, through porcelain eyeholes. Across the way from him, chained to a thick, rectangular rock stuck in the ground was Kurama, or what he assumed was Kurama.

The fox was clad in a black, plain robe. His red hair fell around either of his shoulders and around a pure white mask. The mask was oval in shape and bore the resemblance of a soft-faced human with gently pursed lips of pure porcelain, unpainted. The eyes were covered by a black cloth, ending at the edge of the mask to fall down to his chest in loose ribbons. Black markings of an ink of some sort swirled under the covered eyeholes, and were matched by the twisting patters on the sides of the mask and the center of the forehead.

Kuwabara didn't recognize them, if they were meant to mean anything at all.

Around the fox were other stones, various sizes but all mostly rectangular in shape, some forming doorways by two stones topped with a third. Kuwabara frowned slightly. He thought he recognized the place, but he couldn't quite remember where he had seen it.

Men were all around them, clothed in dark black, slightly iridescent robes. Hoods pulled up into cones, bending slightly at top, covered their heads and connected to the masks over their faces. Skulls of an oddly real imagery were placed over their eyes, ending as they bridged over the nose.

Kuwabara had no idea what the hell was going on, but he had a feeling that they had stepped into the middle of some sort of freakish, gothic cult without knowing it.

Some men moved about with a purpose, and two stood on either side of Kurama's stone, as well as two on either side of his. Others were in a circle around a giant black…pot which stood in the middle of the circle of stones. Kuwabara frowned at its bubbling, clear liquid and the dark green fire burning beneath it and the men standing around them with half raised arms.

Last time he checked, and that was last night when he made dinner, fires didn't burn _green_.

"Kurama, there are men…and…stones everywhere and…and a fire that's burning green!" Kuwabara shouted back even as he pulled against his own chains, his wrists becoming sore from the weight of his own body.

Kurama frowned, both at the weak description he was given as well as the sudden scream of another being. The fox's eyes opened wide behind the mask as the most foul-mouthed swearing he had heard in some time suddenly graced their presence.

"Let go of me, bastards! Fucking dipshits! Let go! Assholes, release me! Cock-sucking mother-fucking halfbreeds! Let me go!"

"Yusuke!" Kurama and Kuwabara shouted out at the same time. The cussing abruptly halted as his name sunk in and Yusuke spun in the arms of his captors, taking in both Kurama and Kuwabara dangling from a bunch of rocks.

"Kuwabara!" he shouted out as he was hauled up, kicking and screaming. "Fox-boy! Use your plants, damn it!"

Kurama nodded as he closed his eyes and concentrated. He should have been doing just that to begin with; freeing himself. He was sure that Yusuke would use his rei-gun if he got the opportunity. Summoning a plant to lengthen it's thin vine from his hair, he kept his position unmoving in hopes that no one would notice the green plant snaking down his neck and up around his arm to his cuff.

Yusuke was hauled up and chained in time to see Hiei suddenly appear and stumble back away from the cauldron. He watched in surprise as he realized that the men were standing in a circle and chanting in a language he wasn't familiar with. It dawned upon him as two men grabbed the shaken fire demon before he could fall to the floor; the men in the circle had summoned him and his three friends.

The chanting died down even as Hiei's outraged screams ripped around them.

Yusuke took the moment to glance around again as they strung Hiei up. His friends and he were dressed in black robes and masks, all four hanging on stones in a circle of them. Kurama hung across from Kuwabara, while Hiei hung across from him.

They all bore masks of a similar fashion; soft-faced human design with ribbons and odd inked designs. Kuwabara's mask of an off-white color bore dark green symbols of sharp contrast to Kurama's. While the fox's swirled in a rather gothic, almost eerie manner, Kuwabara's held harsh, sharp angles and cornered spirals, no line curving but rather full of sharp contouring angles. These symbols wrapped over the chin of the mask as well as the bridge of the nose to just under the eyes.

Green ribbons matching the color of the painted symbols hung from the sides of his mask, just before his ears. There were three ribbons on either side that hung down to his chest. Unlike Kurama, these ribbons did not obscure his eyes, which could be seen from behind the porcelain cut outs.

Hiei, who was across from the raven haired detective, bore a mask of a cream color covered in deep, blood red markings. Drawings that bore a similarity to those in Makai, and truly confused as well as frightened Yusuke, were scrawled in an inky splatter under the two eyeholes as well as above each of them, evenly spaced. Slightly above the two scrolled markings on his forehead but in the very center of them, forming a triangle, was a scrawled mark for the demon word, _Evil Eye_.

Yusuke didn't know what he looked like, but he was almost afraid to find out. He didn't like what was going on and it was pissing him off beyond what he could contemplate into words that his friends were being harmed and chained up like objects.

He rattled his own chains as the men in the circle around the center cauldron parted to let through what appeared to be the leader of this little cult.

His skin was icy pale and gave off a sort of slimy appearance upon the first look. From out of flowing, somewhat unnatural robes of a translucent black was a face contorted to be comparable to a snake. His nose had been flattened so that the only rise was in his nostrils, which were slit thin to once again copy that of a snake. Eyes of a cold, threatening presence narrowed as he stepped into the ring of what Yusuke supposed were his followers.

This man sent shivers down the well-trained detective who had fought many a demons and "creepy" men.

As the man before them raised his arms to speak in that foreign language of theirs, Yusuke glanced over to Kurama, trying to keep it inconspicuous. He watched as his teammate popped one hand out of his manacle in perfect silence.

Without being able to see Kurama's face, he could only imagine the pain the fox was going through to keep himself perfectly quiet as he hung by one arm, managing to keep his movement to a minimum.

Thankfully, the men on either side of his stone prison had not yet noticed the fox's attempts towards freedom.

Yusuke kept his breath from taking in, where he wanted to hold it in hope for his teammate. He gathered his power slowly into his finger, not sure whether the men that had captured them knew of their abilities with youki and reiki or not.

Seeing as none of them were warded, he had a feeling they did not, but that did not stop him from being cautious as he gathered enough energy for a point-precision shot with his rei-gun.

Kurama looked up, though he didn't know where to look up to in hopes of finding Yusuke, so he simply looked up as a signal. Yusuke got it, even if the fox was unaware that he did.

So when Kurama suddenly dropped from his stone confinement, screaming at Yusuke to fire, the detective raised his wrist as best he could around the cuffs and shot.

Blue light engulfed the clearing, sending shadows from the stones all around the ground in a circular pattern. The shot fired through the clearing and hit the hooded, masked man right in the chest, sending him back with a cry of pain. Kurama took the other one out with a side sweep kick, knocking him off his feet, and using only his hearing to locate him.

Kurama was up, pulling the mask to the top of his head with his hand, and sprinting across the circle. Men shouted as he easily took them out, one by one, and headed directly for Yusuke.

The fox ducked as Yusuke screamed for him to do so as a red light flashed by him. All eyes opened wide as the edge of the stone beside him exploded, chipped off by that red light.

"Oh my fucking god." That one comment uttered as calmly as that was all that was needed. Kurama reached up and began pouring acid onto the chains, using the juice of a seed and ignoring the acid that got on his own hands in the process.

The men in the odd cult outfits and masks were freaking out, half of them keeping the circle, a fourth remaining in the circle but pulling out sticks from their black robes. The last fourth went running towards Kurama and Yusuke.

"Fox!" Hiei screamed out as he began chucking fireballs, manacles clanging as he hoisted himself up enough to move his wrists before falling back down. "Detective, get moving!"

Kurama moved to his other chain to pour acid as Yusuke pulled his wrist and manacle free, breaking the last chain. The fox cringed as acid drops began to run down his hand again as he rubbed the seed onto the second set of chains.

"Watch it!" Yusuke shouted as he screamed out his shotgun attack. Half the men, including the one that was mere feet from Kurama, went down and both Hiei and Kuwabara narrowly avoided being hit. Kurama was just about done with the last bit of acid when two words caught his mind and he spun to stare at one of the robed men who had managed to avoid the shotgun blast.

"_Avada Ked-_"

"Stop, you insolent fool!" the creepy, snake-leader screamed, pulling his own stick out and shouting a Latin command. A green light flared out among them but when it cleared, all four tentai froze in their movements to stare at the man twitching on the ground.

"Kurama…Get out of here!" Yusuke screamed as he pulled his second arm free, causing the manacle to cut into his wrist as he had to pull harder than normal in order to break the half melted chain.

The fox was already up and running, but not to where Yusuke had in mind. The detective gave one strangled shout as he dropped to the floor, throwing his mask to the side of his head, only to find that Kurama was sprinting right through the half unconscious, half firing men.

Red lights sprung around them as Kurama turned and raised a kekkai around him, bouncing the dangerous lights off to shoot elsewhere. He turned and kept running towards Hiei, expecting Yusuke to go after Kuwabara.

The detective didn't disappoint; as soon as he realized that not only was Kurama not going to do what he said and get out of here, but he could block those stone-exploding lights with a kekkai he was up and after Kuwabara.

Leaping over the unconscious men and raising a kekkai around him, he made it over to his orange-haired companion and shot his first chains off. He turned in time to see Kurama reach Hiei, the fire demon covering him with fireball after fireball.

One of those lights sent forth by the leader himself, who was yelling at the incompetence of his men, cracked and shattered Kurama's kekkai and sent the fox stumbling forward with a yell as the first of Hiei's cuffs dropped off. A second light sent by one of the lesser hooded men collapsed Kurama entirely as he fell to the ground before Hiei with a cry of surprise.

The fire demon's red eyes widened in surprise as he was tearing off his mask and he suddenly screamed in outrage, melting the metal of his last manacle and dropping to the ground beside Kurama.

Yusuke's eyes widened as he shot the last of Kuwabara's confinement and the orange-haired teen dropped to the ground. "Watch it!" Yusuke shouted as he grabbed his best friend and shoved himself and Kuwabara into the ground by the stone.

Not two seconds later the dragon of the darkness flame erupted in all its fury and wrapped around the stone, scorching the one Kuwabara had been attached to seconds before. Yusuke began soldier crawling away from the stone figurations, motioning for Kuwabara to follow, the latter busy yelling at Hiei to watch where we was aiming.

As the two crawled from the raging inferno of a fireball that used to be Stonehenge, the screams of the burning men behind them and shouted commands broke through the fiery crackling.

Yusuke climbed up as they made it out of the stone circle to see Hiei pulling Kurama out twenty feet from them. He pulled Kuwabara up and headed to his two teammates.

Kurama was conscious and seemed perfectly fine but for the fact that he could not stand. Hiei was supporting him with Kurama's arm wrapped around his shoulder. The fox and the fire demon didn't stop as their two teammates ran up beside them and kept running as fast as they could, expecting Yusuke and Kuwabara to follow.

"What the fuck is going on?" Yusuke screamed out as they ran, Kuwabara tripping over his long black robes twice. He managed to help his orange-haired companion as they ran through green, grassy fields.

Hiei didn't answer until he suddenly came to a halt, staring at the ground. Yusuke followed his gaze to the asphalt just before the fire demon's feet.

"Ningen," Hiei hissed at the road they were on, Kurama hanging onto him tightly as he tried to get his legs back but found it useless.

"Whoever, let's just go!" Yusuke shouted as he ran across it and back into the grassy fields. "Don't follow it; we have no idea where we are!"

"England." Yusuke turned as he ran to look at Kurama as the fox repeated his claim. "We're in England."

"What the hell are we doing in England?" Kuwabara shouted out as they continued running. There were shouts behind them as the dragon, less fiery and much smaller suddenly slammed back into Hiei, reforming around his arm.

The fire demon managed to hold on to Kurama as the dragon rejoined him, but the renewed shouts from the stick-toting, masked cult freaks heading after them caused the four to quicken their pace.

Unfortunately, due to Kurama's jelly legs and Kuwabara's human nature, they couldn't increase their speed past what Kuwabara could handle, which wasn't much faster than a human.

They hadn't run far when the shouts behind them began to fade and they glanced at one another, not sure where they were, how to get home, or even if they could contact Koenma.

"Okay…" Yusuke said as he began slowing to a walking pace. He turned around as he did so to look at the horizon behind them. The stones still stood out but were clouded over by a pillowing cloud of black smoke, illuminated by the flames still burning. "Let's see if we can get a portal open, okay?"

Hiei nodded, gently starting to lower Kurama to the ground but stopped, staring at him in surprise for a moment. The fox raised an eyebrow at him but the fire demon simply gave his one syllable answer and looked away.

He had though he saw Kurama shake his head at Yusuke's proposal.

"I'll open the portal," Hiei answered as he put two fingers together and sliced through the air. Sparks flew but no portal opened and all four backed away, Hiei picking Kurama up in a blur as the sparks began hissing like a malfunctioning computer someone just poured coffee on.

"What in Makai was th-" Kuwabara never finished his exclaimed mark as the sound of popping began all around them, with each one Yusuke and Kuwabara jumped slightly.

Within seconds there were twelve men surrounding them, clothed in cloaks and various hats with odd entities stuck around them, all pointing those damn sticks at them again.

Yusuke didn't look at his orange-haired friend, but he slightly inclined his head towards him. "You were saying, Kuwabara?"

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 1_

End

-o-o-o-

Okay, it's finished.

I hope you all enjoyed this and please review!

Oh, and let me now if there are any questions, since I didn't actually name anything in the wizard world.

**Author's Notes **  
_  
…as if he Yusuke knew something the fire demon didn't…_Okay, if no one got this: Yusuke knows that Kurama loves Hiei, but Hiei doesn't know, and he also likes to tease both the fox and the fire demon by "flirting" if you will, with Kurama when he knows Hiei is near.

…_green light flared…man twitching on the ground…_ Okay, Voldemort didn't use the killing curse. The green light was the misfire of the death eater's curse. Voldemort just…punished without killing.

…_Sparks flew but no portal opened… _This will be explained in further chapters.

**End Author's Notes**

ALSO: I reread this and realized that from any one with even the slightest perversion (a.k.a.: Me) would notice that I used the words "pulled out" in a sentence with the word "stick" waaaaaay too many times.

Okay, just thought I'd give you all a last minute laugh. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review!


	3. Telltale Lies

**Disclaimer**: See previous claims of owning nothing.

**Story Notes**: Have you ever noticed that no one seems to be able to write Dumbledore? Okay, I'm no exception.

Also, I don't care for this chapter as much as the last. Sorry, but I can't get it just right.

**Pairings**: Hiei/Kurama Ron/Hermoine

**Time Note**: I forgot to mention that this takes place after the fifth book. I'm sorry people, I didn't like the fifth book, but I absolutely despised the sixth book. Almost to the point of being boycott worthy.

And since Sirius is my favorite character and I have the opportunity to bring him back, I will…hesitantly, place this timing after the fifth book.

**Translation**: This is sort of the "mingle" chapter, where the English speakers meet the Japanese speakers. For now, I will not show which language they're speaking by "_italics_" or underlined dialogue and such. You will know by context clues and because I will state which language. Now, after this, or possibly the beginning of the next chapter the language most commonly spoken will be English.

-o-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 2_

Telltale Lies

-o-o-o-o-

**Two Weeks Prior**

"Everything will be fine, Molly," Dumbledore assured for the seventh, or eighth time just in that hour. He stood before them in all his pink-robed glory, glasses affectionately at the end of his nose and white hair neatly combed. And that was quite an accomplishment at three o'clock in the morning.

"Harry is resting," Dumbledore continued as he placed a comforting hand on the smaller woman before him, smiling his one smile that simply wiped your fears away with its own calming tranquility. "He should probably stay in bed for a few hours more, at least until the sun is up."

"Yes, yes," Molly began, nodding her head quickly, "he shouldn't be getting up at all. I'll make sure he's well taken care of, yes."

Dumbledore smiled and quietly excused himself from the house; he had much to do in the wee hours of the morning. The ministry would have to be informed. If the information Harry had given the headmaster was correct, and not a trick of Voldemort's, then Dumbledore had more to fear than he had previously prepared for.

After all, until now neither the ministry nor himself had ever worked demons into the equation.

-o-o-o-o-

"So…how are you feelin', mate?" Ron asked, lying on his stomach on his bed, head of bright red hair propped up by his hand.

Green eyes glanced over to his roommate, a hand idly rubbing the slightly varied colored scar on his forehead. He gave a light smile to Ronald Weasley, attempting to calm the concern in his best friend's eyes.

"Alright, I guess," Harry Potter replied as he rolled onto his stomach, placing his chin in his palm. "I just…wish I knew what Voldemort-" He resisted rolling his eyes as Ron shivered- "was up to. It makes me nervous to think he's messing around with…with demons!"

Ron seemed troubled, furling his brow. "Yeah…blimey, Harry. What if…" the redhead swallowed heavily, "…what if he manages to get the demons on his side?"

Harry didn't like the aspects of that, but he also knew from the thoughts whispered in his dream, Voldemort's thoughts, that the spell he had been preparing for wasn't to just get demons on his side.

The boy who lived shook his head. "I don't think that's it, Ron," he replied almost slowly, hesitantly as he finished thinking through his own thoughts. "It was…I don't know, something tells me that Voldemort wasn't trying to recruit but was trying rather to…Summon."

Ron's eyes widened and a whisper passed his lips as he drew his head around to look back numbly at the wall. "Bloody hell, mate."

Harry gave a weak smile towards his best friend and rolled back over onto his back, pulling his glasses off and placing them on the nightstand beside his bed. He gave a tired sigh as he let his heavy lids fall closed over his green orbs.

Last night had been the fourth dream, and from the joy that Voldemort had felt at making this latest discovery, Harry feared it had been the last one needed. He didn't know what was coming next, but if he had any experience with Voldemort (and he had had plenty) then he knew that it was nothing good for him.

He only hoped that his friends would stand beside him as always, and that his luck would hold in the end.

-o-o-o-o-

**Two Weeks Later**

Yusuke glanced around him, managing to keep his glance only that, and not a glare. They were back to back, facing the circle that was busy facing them. All twelve men were staring at them with those sticks, weapons Yusuke had to admit, and any man willing to yield a weapon without question purposed a threat.

He went over as many possible strategies as he could think of, even if that was mostly Kurama's job. It didn't look good, however. He could raise a kekkai, but with twelve of them, just as that one leader had cracked Kurama's…well, their shield wouldn't last long.

"Kurama?" he whispered as the four faced their new enemy. "Got any smart ideas?"

The fox never had the time to reply as one of the men, the more oddly dressed of them, suddenly put his weapon back within the confines of his cloak and took a step towards the boys.

His long, white beard hung down over his dark purple robes, which were spattered with shiny stars and moons. The hat upon his brow seemed like more of a nightcap than anything else, and would have brought a booming laugh from Yusuke and Kuwabara had the situation been less dire.

However, he stood with a commanding presence that obviously stated the others looked up to him as a guide and a leader. The power radiating off this man was easily read as human, but Yusuke didn't recognize any other part of the energy signature.

Yusuke just stared at him with a raised eyebrow as the man began speaking, slowly as he had obviously realized their foreign blood. And the raven-haired teen didn't understand a word of it.

"Huh?" he muttered, looking over to Kurama. The long haired teen turned to face the man before him, standing next to Yusuke. Automatically, and not missed by the man standing before them with sparkling eyes, Hiei and Kuwabara compensated the fox's move, covering their teammates' backs once more.

"Sir," Kurama began slowly and Yusuke turned in surprise to notice he was speaking the same language.

'_English, it must be English_,' Yusuke thought slowly to himself. '_Yeah…that's why it sounded familiar. Those three days I didn't ditch English class actually paid off…sort of.'_

"We-" Kurama faltered, but his friends and their well-trained eyes could see the act in it. The man before him suddenly seemed to understand and gave a suddenly sweet smile. He reached back into his robes slowly, and withdrew the wand once more.

Hiei hissed and drew his sword even as the light began to illuminate at the tip of his finger but Kurama stopped them all with a single hissed "No!" They glanced at one another and slowly, Hiei slid the katana back into its sheath and waited.

The man before them slowly withdrew the piece of wood and motioned that he meant no harm to anyone. Slowly he raised the wand to his throat, doing well to keep it from looking as if he were pointing it to the others.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore," he spoke and as he did so the four detectives' eyes widened as clear spoken, perfectly enunciated Japanese flowed from the man's mouth.

"Y-you speak Japanese?" Kuwabara stumbled, turning to face him. Hiei glared at him for turning his back on an enemy but slowly gave a sigh, rolled his eyes, and turned as well.

"In a manner of speaking," the man named Dumbledore answered without truly giving any answer at all. "What, if I may have the pleasure, are your names?"

Kurama glanced at Yusuke, who just shrugged and turned back to the man. So, taking the initiative as the better conversationalist, the fox took a step forward and bowed before the man.

"I am Minamino Kurama. These are my companions, Urameshi Yusuke, Kuwabara Kazuma, and Jaganshi Hiei," Kurama replied, luckily without a pause as he chose which first name to use as well as Hiei's last name.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all," Dumbledore said welcomingly. "But, perhaps you will allow me one more inquiry. What are you all doing here in the middle of the night?"

Yusuke wasn't sure how Kurama was going to get them out of this one, this time, but the fox, as always, managed to surprise the hell out him as he began spinning a tail that even his own teammates found convincing considering they were witnessing what was finally dawning on them as magic.

"Sir…I'm terribly sorry but my friends and I…we don't know what's going on either," Kurama began apologetically, feigning the worry in his voice perfectly so that he could easily be seen as a confused, young _human _teen.

"We don't remember anything before tonight…the first thing I remember is waking up chained to a stone. We all were…well, you see sir," he gently pulled the mask off of his head and showed it to him. "I couldn't see anything…but something…odd was going on. Something unexplainable, Sir."

Dumbledore's white eyebrow rose slightly in a questioning manner that wasn't yet accusing. Yusuke amazingly picked up the story as he saw the doubt lingering in the other men's eyes.

"I could see; it was weird, abnormal. There were men with skull masks and cone hats. A big black pot with a…a green fire underneath it. I don't know what happened but…sparks flew and there were red lights everywhere and...and I don't know what else."

"We got loose." All three tentai turned to Hiei, who was staring fully deadpan at the white haired man before them, taking in the change in all the men's faces. They obviously recognized Yusuke's description of their captors.

"Loose?" one of the other robed men echoed, holding his wand to his throat as well.

Hiei turned his red eyes to him and glared. He didn't like this one; the greasy black hair and beady eyes behind an overly large nose made him worse than Kuwabara in the fire demon's book. When the greasy-haired man didn't give any reply to his glare, those crimson blood orbs turned back to Dumbledore, who wasn't questioning his answer. "We ran. In the first direction that came to us. And here we are."

"Clueless and memory-less," Kuwabara added in like a peanut gallery. The wizards in front of them were staring at all four of them in doubt and complete uncertainty.

"You don't remember anything before that?" one of them asked, that stick back at his throat. Kurama shook his head in a negative. "How do you know each other?"

"Sir…um, we…we just don't know!" Kuramahadfumbled slightly, but managed to make himself continue. Now, he continued tosound almost hysterical, as if lost in everything that had been happening. Yusuke even held back the urge to turn an incredulous look towards him.

Damn, the fox could act better then he thought.

A hand was suddenly laid the fox's shoulder and he raised his wide, falsely confused eyes to look into Dumbledore's piercing ones. "It's okay, young man," Dumbledore spoke softly, smiling encouragingly. "You've been placed under a spell; _crepido_ _memoria damnum_, a Base Memory eraser. It erases primary memories, everything on the surface of your memory banks. It's why you can remember each other but not a specific memory."

Kurama nodded, blinking away his crocodile tears. Dumbledore remained smiling at him as he continued, placing his other hand on the fox's other shoulder. "Unfortunately, you four will have to come with us. We'll take you some place safe, away from the men who did this."

Yusuke glanced to Kurama, who glanced questionably back to him, keeping up his role as the man released his shoulders. The detective could have kissed the fox, but figured he'd not only ruin the youko's entire act but also get his sword chopped off by a jealous fire demon (who would then make an excuse up for why he did it, seeing as _he_ could never be jealous.) He gave the fox a light nod, as if to allow the acceptance of this old man's deal.

"Okay," Kurama replied in a semi-stable voice and Dumbledore smiled and held out his hand. The fox gave a light frown but placed his hand in the old mans, staring up at him quizzically.

"Good, now let's get you four out of this chilly night air." With a pop, Kurama disappeared for the second time that day.

Hiei's hand was back to the sword, but Kuwabara grabbed his wrist (much to the fire demon's disgust) as another of these men, or should be said a woman, stepped forward and offered Yusuke her hand as well.

The detective eyed the wizened old hag up and down for a long, suspicious moment. Her skin wrinkled over her stern face and her black hair was pulled back in a tight school teacher bun. Strict eyes stared back, an obvious suspicion in them but also a form of kindness behind those square-rim glasses. After a serious consulting with his Mozaku instincts, he stuck out his hand in all his delinquent attitude and took the old lady's hand.

With a pop and a harsh pull from his stomach with disorientation, he found himself in a completely different location, clinging out of shock to the old woman beside him.

-o-o-o-o-

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were racing each other down the stairs by the third "pop" signaling a wizard apparating into 12 Grimmauld Place, Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

They slid to a halt on the last landing before the leg of the first floor steps. Ron gasped as Hermione slammed into him, and then Harry slammed into both of them, sending them into the stairway wall. Ron gave a glare back to the other two but all three of them crouched down and looked down under the railing to the first floor.

Professor Dumbledore was standing among ten other Order members, including Snape and McGonagal. But that wasn't what the Golden Trio was interested in. Standing beside Dumbledore, the others gathered around them, were three newcomers that neither Harry nor his friends recognized.

"They look foreign," Hermione whispered as she stared at the three teenagers. The first, and the one who stood closest to Dumbledore, had long, flowing hair that was a bright red with underlying highlights of darker crimson. It was harder to see at the angle they were exposed to, but bright green eyes blinked questionably at the ancient house.

"Hey 'Mione," Ron began as he nudged the girl beside him. She turned her head, absently brushing her frizzy brown hair to the side. "Is that a guy or a girl? The redheaded one."

Hermione rolled her eyes. She figured a guy would be the first to figure out that the redhead wasn't female, considering where many teenage boys tended to look first for that answer. "It's a guy, Ronald. Do you see a chest on him?"

Ron flushed slightly at the mention of looking at a girl's chest and quickly hid his red face away from Hermione. The brunette just shook her head and went back to observing the newcomers.

The redheaded carried himself with an uncertainty that undermined the grace Hermione thought she saw in his movements. Her brow furled slightly as she watched him glance around the house. Green eyes met hers and she had the urge to duck away.

Something about those eyes told her that this boy was ageless; holding a wisdom that even she could not comprehend.

That, or he just had really pretty eyes.

Harry was busy studying the second of these strangers. He wasn't as tall as the redhead, but with barely a glance the young wizard could tell he was a leader. The man carried himself with such pride and confidence that Harry got the odd feeling that little could push this man around.

He had raven-black hair that was slicked back with enough gel to spike an acromantula's hair. The mask pushed to the side of his head, the tie strapped over his forehead seemed a bit of an oddity that didn't quite go with the blue jeans and white T-shirt, but Harry brushed it off. Soft, chocolate brown eyes stared around curiously but also with a suspicion that bore the truth of this man loud and clear to Harry.

He might be a leader, but this raven-haired mystery was also a good friend.

His eyes told that he was looking everywhere for possibly dangers, for threats to the two standing beside him.

The third man, taller than all the rest had a ridiculous pompadour hairdo of orange-red hair that could rival the Weasely's. His beady black eyes were looking around as well, but his was in pure curiosity and an obvious lack of appreciation for the ancient house they stood in.

Unlike the other two, his demeanor was less graceful and confident. He was lanky, with skinny arms and legs that still bore muscles on his uncovered arms. But he seemed more of a klutz than a leader. But his eyes did tell a lot about his heart, any of the three wizards above could tell that.

He was loyal and had the courage of any Gryffindor.

A last pop was heard as Lupin arrived with a fourth stranger. This boy looked no more than twelve, maybe even younger. He was the shortest of all of them, only reaching the tallest one's chest, including his hair. Said hair was swept up in an impossible hairdo that seemed loose with no gel but couldn't defy gravity as it did without any. The raven colored strands seemed slightly blue tipped in the right light and a flush of white hair in the shape of a star was dusted over his bangs and his forehead.

It gave him at least another foot to his heighth.

Beneath a white bandana wide, crimson red eyes (which Harry guessed was a spell or muggle contacts) glared at everything, scourging every corner for anything that could jump out with a weapon or pose a threat. This last boy was obviously the most threatening, and he held a fierce pretense that worried Harry greatly.

Unlike the other three, or at least the raven-haired and orange-haired boys, this one looked ready to burn down the entire building if he thought it might be fun.

"Welcome to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Dumbledore's voice easily carried throughout the room, commanding everyone's attention with its wisdom and kindness. The wand was still at his throat and the Golden Trio exchanged confused glances at what was said. "Here you can stay until we figure out what this is all about."

The redhead gave a sort of nod by bowing his head in respect to the white-bearded man before him. When he talked, his voice was a soft alto that spoke of untold patience and once more a wisdom that seemed almost impossible to comprehend.

But maybe he just had a pretty voice, too.

Of course, the three also had absolutely no idea what was said.

"My friends and I can not thank you enough for your generosity," Kurama said thankfully, bowing in Japanese mannerism. The old man before him, who held such composure, bowed back, smiling again.

"Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, and of course, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stood up as he pulled the wand away from his throat, calling upwards as his eyes slowly followed to look at the three, who shrank back a bit sheepishly. His warm smile kept them from trying to hide their presence however, and they stood from their positions crouched on the floor. "Come join us, we have honored guests you should meet."

The three descended the stairs under the scrutiny of the four teenagers standing on in the foyer. As the two separate groups determined what they could from each other, taking in every little detail to assess exactly who they were and what they could do, the other wizards excused themselves and apparated out of 12 Grimmauld place, leaving only Lupin, Professor McGonagal, Tonks, Snape, and Professor Dumbledore.

Tonks excused herself from the group, bidding farewell to the boys with a wand to her throat in order to babble words that the trio once more couldn't understand.

"Sounds oriental," Hermione whispered to them as they took the last step. "Maybe Japanese."

"Sharp as always, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore replied, his eyes twinkling behind those glasses of his. "These four boys appear to be from Japan, or so it would seem from the language they speak."

Harry glanced over at his two friends. _Seem_?

"Professor..?" Hermione approached questioningly, not understanding how someone could appear to be from Japan instead of _knowing_ they're from Japan.

Dumbledore blinked as if awoken from his own thoughts and he smiled wider, looking down in warmth. "Yes, yes, of course. Introductions first, then we'll sort this whole thing out."

He cleared his throat and turned to the four boys. The redhead was talking in low whispers to the other three without turning away, and it gave off the impression that he was translating what the professor said.

Perhaps they spoke some English after all.

"These four young men before you are Kurama Minamino, Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, and Hiei Jaganshi." Dumbledore motioned to each one as he named them off, the boys greeting them back in some way. Kurama, the redhead, bowed his head once more. Yusuke, the raven-haired leader gave them a thumbs up, while his comrade Kazuma, the tallest of them, gave them the peace sign. The last did absolutely nothing but grunt and look away.

"You'll have to forgive him," the redhead suddenly spoke up, his English slightly shaky and accented by his native Japanese tongue, but relatively good for a foreigner. "Hiei isn't very social."

Harry was surprised at just how much English the boy knew and he smiled automatically at him, nodding. "That's all right, mate," he replied as he outstretched his hand. Kurama blinked at him for a moment before he reached out and shook Harry's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you…?" Kurama began, and Harry's smile turned a bit sheepish at having not introduced himself.

"Harry, Harry Potter," he replied, not sure whether to expect widened eyes and amazement at meeting a "celebrity" or just a normal welcome.

The fox smiled knowingly, as if he was hiding a secret that he laughed at about when no one else could see him; a secret that no one else knew. "It is very nice to meet you, Potter-san."

Ron frowned behind him. "Potter what?"

Kurama laughed evenly, the sound an oddly light jingle in the dusty house. "In Japanese we use postfixes to honor names. In English…I believe it means Mr. Potter."

The redhead turned as his comrade Yusuke, who the Trio definitely thought of as the "leader", gently prodded him in the arm.

"Oi," Yusuke began, the others falling out of the conversation as he spoke Japanese, "you gonna tell us what you're saying or are you just going to leave us out of it?"

Kurama gave his comrade a comforting smile. "I'm just making friends."

"Kitsune, hurry it up," Hiei replied sharply, turning those crimson orbs on the fox. They were harsh and seemed frustrated. Kurama's smile faded for just a second before he brought it back. "I don't like this place and I don't like being on show like a fucking bird."

Yusuke turned to Hiei and gave him a relatively low-level glare, but the fire demon simply returned it. The detective could tell something was wrong with the hiyoukai. He was uptight and tensing, something was obviously keeping him very alert and actually nearing a nervous state.

"Of course, Hiei," Kurama replied obediently and turned back. Facing Dumbledore and bowing low to him. "My apologies, Dumbledore-sama, but my friends and I have…been through a lot. Is it at all possible to..?"

"Yes, yes, of course. We shall continue this tomorrow morning and figure out what has been happening. It is late and we should all be tucked away in our beds, as it is," the headmaster finished for him and motioned to the Golden Trio. "If you'd like to follow these wonderful young students and myself, we would be glad to find you some rooms."

The shorter, fierce man spoke again, his words sharp and curt. Ron glanced back to Harry, feeling that this young boy was not only too temperamental for his apparent age, but bared a much closer resemblance to Snape than any of them wanted to have.

Kurama's smile actually widened slightly, despite what Harry thought was a quick reprimand by the shorter boy. The redhead turned back and brought his smile to the wizened professor once more.

"We will only need one room, sir," he replied. His smile was only brought on by the fire demon's care. His words may have been sharp but they expressed concern and what he had said, even if they weren't his exact words but Kurama's interpretation, was that he didn't want any one of the tentai where he couldn't keep watch on them.

Dumbledore nodded as he directed them to the stairs. On the way up he started talking of various things about the house they were in. Hiei took them more as warnings; screaming paintings, curtains that might attack if you get too close, pots and pans that don't always make what you put in them weren't exactly "interesting things of the house."

Harry glanced at Hermione and Ron who gave him the return stare that made one thought clear in all their minds.

_What in the name of Merlin is going on?_

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 2_

End

-o-o-o-

Whelp, there's your new chapter. I don't know why I can write this one so much better than my others.

**Author's Notes**

…_where many teenage boys tended to look first…_ Look, I don't think I'm sexist and I try not to be but I am a girl and most unfortunately, I have met one too many teenage boys who look at my chest before they look at my face. Not that I have anything to look at anyways, but boys will be boys. However, for those of you who are male and reading this, I also know a lot of guys who aren't like that. So I'm not trying to insult. Please don't take it as such.

_Kurama's acting skills_: Personally, I think Kurama would have to be an _amazing_ actor to pull of lying to his mother day after day about himself, missions, and friends. Mothers know _everything_ that you do. Being able to keep it all a secret would take amazing talent. That's the way I see it.

_Mozaku_: Okay, concerning this word: I've seen it spelt Mozaku and Mazaku. I don't know which one is write, but I chose this one for no particular reason. So, if anyone knows the _actual_, correct way to spell it, not just the way you spell it, let me know. Thankies.

_Everything Else_: Okay, Kurama's little odd behavior will be explained, as will Hiei's. It all ties in amazingly. So just hang tight.

**End Author's Notes**

Thanks, I hope you enjoyed, and please review.

please review!


	4. TallTale Truths

**Disclaimer**: Still owning nothing.

**Story Notes**: Nothing at this time.

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 3_

Tall-Tale Truths

-o-o-o-

The second they were alone in the room (alone being with no one (or nothing) within hearing range under all conditions including the stern, aged woman who had come back with extra blankets and pillows) Hiei turned to give Kurama a long, hard stare. The fox swallowed hard and looked away slightly confused, or at least acting it.

At least acting to the fire demon, who knew Kurama well enough to recognize that.

"Man, what have we gotten ourselves into?" Yusuke all but shouted out, fisting his hair in either hand. "We're stuck in some magic house in England and we've gotta keep pretending we don't know anything?"

"It's worse than that, I'm afraid, Yusuke," Kurama responded apologetically, giving a small smile. Yusuke looked over to him with slightly widened eyes, the size caused by the horror at imagining what else could add on to it. "We will have to maintain their assumptions that we are all human."

"Yes," Hiei suddenly cut in before Kuwabara could join in the groaning and complaining. His red eyes were still glaring harshly at the fox, scrutinizing him angrily. "I'd like to know how you pulled that off, Fox."

Yusuke blinked and Kuwabara turned the fox with an overly intelligent, "Huh?"

Kurama shifted slightly though his relatively forced smile was still in place. He seemed a tad bit uncomfortable, though he had always been good at hiding the real extent of things. "Pulled what off, Hiei?"

The glare intensified.

The fox sighed slightly and rubbed the ache that had been forming in his neck for the last two hours. His smile, however, turned a little sheepish, knowing he was caught. "How I knew the way they'd fall for it?"

"How you knew the exact description needed to make them automatically believe it was a certain spell," the fire demon clarified, those red eyes daring the fox to lie to him. "How is it you knew exactly which spell you needed to convince them we were under and the symptoms it would cause?"

"Wait, spell? We're going along with this? Magic, I mean?" Kuwabara asked dubiously, obviously a little confused at the fact that they were all automatically assuming it was real.

Yusuke had been a little shaky on that understanding as well, but he had simply let the two demons before him work the understandings out. If they believed in it then either it was true or he had just lost two of his best friends to insanity.

He would rather believe that magic was real.

"It is real, Kuwabara," Kurama answered softly, giving him a kind but explanatory smile. "Wizards have existed as long as demons have. It's an evolutionary sort of thing. I'll explain it to you a little later, alright?"

Kuwabara just nodded, ignoring the somewhat motherly explanation of his best friend. Kurama did that a lot; took the role of taking care of all of them in a deeper meaning than just protecting them.

He wondered what made him do that, but it was sometimes comforting to know the fox cared deeply for them all.

Especially when he could summon that death plant so easily.

The fire demon, however, was not happy at having the subject changed and he cleared his throat angrily, expecting an explanation. The fox smiled at him, though he once more seemed ever so slightly uncomfortable to those who knew how to read him so well (or as well as anyone could read the fox.)

"I met a wizard a few years before my demonic death," Kurama finally began his explanation, though he kept his voice hinting at nonchalance. "He and I spent several nights talking in a bar near the border of Alaric. I learned a lot that I haven't forgotten easily."

Hiei remained eyeing him for a moment before he turned away with apparent satisfaction. Wizards would occasionally cross into the Makai, having the luck to chance upon a portal or spell to summon such. It wasn't that much of a surprise that Youko Kurama had gotten first hand experience from a wizard.

The two teens, however, seemed much more interested in this knew information and Yusuke frowned ever so lightly, though excitement danced in his eyes. "You mean you can do magic?"

Hiei snorted in loud contempt and Kurama sent a slight frown over to him.

"No, that's not it, exactly," he explained as the fire demon took interest in the small window of the room, trying to find a suitable seat near or rather in it. "Magic isn't something that's new to the world or only exists to the few."

Kuwabara frowned at that, glancing over to see Yusuke's reaction. He didn't get anything more than confusion from his friend. "You mean everyone can do it? Then why doesn't everyone in the world know?"

The fox shook his head ever so slightly. "I didn't say everyone could use magic. I said that everyone had some of it. You do, Kuwabara."

The orange-haired teen raised an eyebrow and looked down at himself, as if expecting to see something different about him that would point out "wizard." "Uh…I don't think so, Kurama. If I had magic, don't you think I'd be able to use it?"

A sly, secretive smile appeared on the kitsune's face; a smile that Yusuke normally knew as the _I-know-something-you-don't-know_ look. It was quite common to see the expression on Kurama.

"Kuwabara, what do you think a human would call your rei-ken, could they see it?"

The ningen blinked at that, as if something was very slowly dawning on him. Hiei wondered if you could hear the rusty gears grinding in that head if you got close enough.

"…Magic, I guess…" Kuwabara said almost numbly, thinking it over. If one of his friends or even just a classmate had seen a glowing, fiery sword of light being held freely in his hand, then yeah, he supposed one or more of them might call it magic.

Kurama smiled as he nodded. "Exactly. Their so-called magic is nothing more than their form of energy manipulation."

"And…" Yusuke drew on slowly, his own realizations coming up, "since every living creature has some amount of energy within them, then everyone has some magic."

"Yes," Kurama continued, clasping his hands together in front of him, holding both rather softly in one another and Hiei finally noticed why he seemed both uncomfortable and cautious.

His acid burned hands were still raw from the plants he had used.

Without a word he stood to move over to Kurama, pulled his scarf off and took the fox's hands. Kurama blinked and looked down at the sudden intrusion of personal space but simply smiled lightly and continued his explanations with a soft thanks to Hiei.

"These wizards, however, do not believe others are capable of wielding magic because to the best of their knowledge, other people can't. Wielding magic is, in truth, nothing more than focusing your energy through a base point; a wand in their world.

"For you, Kuwabara, it was a small stick at first and then the hilt at the Ankoku Bujusukai. Now it's simply your hand. For Yusuke it's his fingers. They charge with Reikai and send it through his punches, rei-gun, and Spirit Wave attacks. That's what Western Wizards call Eastern Magic."

"Eastern magic?" Yusuke questioned as he watched the fire demon rip his scarf into strips to wrap the kitsune's hands in.

"Yes, wizards in the west, like here in England, focus using wands. They do the same in the rest of Europe including Russia, as well as the Americas, and Australia." Kurama winced slightly as Hiei knotted off the first hand's bandages and moved to the second. "Africa and Asia, however, are much more concerned with tuning their 'magic' in with nature, and develop their energy into what wizards here call 'wandless magic.'

"In other words, what you and I can do. We manipulate our energy to work on forces of nature, such as plants and fire, or just work as pure energy, such as you and Kuwabara," Kurama wrapped up as Hiei knotted off his other hand.

"So…how does magic work here? I mean…what I saw in that stone field certainly wasn't the use of Reiki, Youki, or any other kind of ki," Yusuke exclaimed and the kitsune nodded, even as he gave Hiei one more thanks before the fire demon retreated to his position at the window.

"What they were doing was most likely a summoning," Kurama continued once more, gently clasping his hands in precaution against hurting them any further. "They use their energy to draw from the powers of all four worlds to create a portal that swallows up the one they're trying to reach."

When both teens looked rather confused at this, Kurama gave a soft sigh. "Um…it's like how we use our energy to tap into the earth to open a portal. Except, instead of tapping into the energy of one plane, their mixing their own energy with one or all four and ordering it to find and grab someone particular, and relocate them using portals."

Both detectives seemed to understand that a little better, greeting it with an "aaaah" sort of sound that Kurama took as understanding.

"I don't know what else they were doing because I couldn't see," the fox added apologetically. Yusuke nodded but Kuwabara frowned slightly.

"Wait…so what kind of magic can they do? Only summonings?" he asked, very confused at how they could use their reiki to summon an unknown person from across half the world.

"No, not only summonings," Kurama corrected lightly as he moved over and sat down on one of the soft chairs they had in the room. A fireplace was in the wall which the chairs semi-circled around but it remained unlit and somewhat boarded up. "Oh, how do I explain this…?"

After a moment of thinking, the fox began again, tapping his chin slightly as he thought of what he was saying carefully, hoping to not have to repeat it in simpler words. "Unlike you and me, wizards don't train their magic to focus on one thing. In my case; I have been taught from birth and onward to focus my energy on plants and only plants, because they were closest in tune with my youki signature. For Hiei, fire came easiest and so he focused his entire life on controlling the fire, rather than exploring into other subjects, for example: ice. Make sense?"

Both Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded as they listened quietly, each having sat down at one point or another, knowing this would take a while and after everything that had happened they weren't in the mood to waste energy standing.

"Well, unlike us in that way, wizards are taught how to use their magic in every way; levitation, fire, growth, invisibility and so on. But because they are taught so much in the same time that you have had to master your so called magic, they have nothing that could be called control.

"For instance, they can summon a blast of fire, but have no choice on what happens with it. Hiei can bend and twist it, while they can only turn their energy into it and let it go free from there," Kurama took a moment to swallow lightly, his throat growing dry from the continuous talking. "The same goes for how they can levitate objects or curse our bodies to stiffen like boards. It's all manipulation of their energy in small, almost uncontrollable bursts. They can master nothing."

Yusuke seemed to understand it immediately and Kuwabara had definitely gotten the gist of what he said by his last words, although it was obvious neither would be professors of wizardry by the still uncomprehending flashes both Kurama and Hiei could see.

"So," Hiei suddenly cut in from the window, not taking his eyes off the darkening world beyond them. "What were they doing back there, Kurama? How did they know how to summon us?"

Yusuke glanced back at the fox to see him fidgeting his hands slightly, which surprised him. The ever calm Kurama seemed almost nervous and he slowly stood up, making his way to the bed.

Thin hands wrapped in gauze picked up one of the masks that lay there, the black designed porcelain that had been strapped to his face earlier that evening. Darker green eyes stared at it, the rest of his face drawn in a grim expression.

"You know, Fox, so you might as well let the rest of us in," Hiei continued, switching back to his common nick-name for Kurama. He could always tell when the kitsune was nervous and whenever he called him by his given name the fox seemed to grow fidgety.

"I _know_ nothing, Hiei," Kurama said softly as he ran his supple fingers over the porcelain surface, tracing one of the swirling gothic lines. "But I _think_ that this was a spell to invoke the four messengers."

Kuwabara frowned, lost in the explanation. "Messengers? Messengers of what?"

The fox continued to stare at the mask, not taking those eyes off of the black blindfold that had been wrapped around the eyes.

A symbol of something that struck fear down in his heart and woke something he wished he would never have to feel again.

He shook his head as he set the mask back down. "I don't know. I know nothing further than that," he replied softer as he turned away from the mask, but his eyes still seemed drawn to it, despite the fact that they were looking in the opposite direction.

Although the other two nodded, all three tentai knew that Kurama was lying to them and they knew that despite that, he most likely had a very good reason to do so.

A reason that meant they needed to know exactly what he was lying about.

-o-o-o-

Today was perhaps the first time in all history that Ron and Harry had gotten up voluntarily before the sun was fully over the horizon. They were downstairs, already drinking some unidentifiable drink that might have been something equivalent to the wizarding world's coffee, by the time the four mysteries descended the stairs.

"Oh…we have company," the redhead (Harry remembered his name was Kurama, but only vaguely) spoke softly.

The waking situation had, perhaps, been similar for Kuwabara and Yusuke, though theirs had been less than voluntary.

Waking up to the sound of Hiei drawing his sword when Kurama's shaking had failed was not something normally qualified as "voluntary."

"Want some Qwick Wake?" Ron asked rather readily. Any egghead could see that he was anxious to find out who these four were; anxious enough that caution was once more thrown to the wind.

Hermione rolled her eyes as Yusuke nudged Kurama, muttering something and leaving it to the redhead to translate, "Um…what is it?"

The know-it-all of the trio decided to answer it for him, the rolling of both her companions' eyes reminding her to keep the explanation brief and concise. "It's a drink containing a wakening potion. Sort of like…muggle coffee."

"Muggle?"

"Um, non magical peoples," Harry replied to the redheads latest inquiry. Kurama whispered back over his shoulder the answer and Yusuke gave him a sharp look as Kuwabara muttered something that sounded very confused.

Harry thought it sounded like "nanny" but could tell the pronunciation was slightly different, though it was said so quickly he couldn't quite recall. Kurama whispered something back one more time and it sounded like a brief explanation.

Yusuke's eyes lit up slightly, widening a bit as Kurama explained to them that wizards were rather full of themselves, believing that no one else had the abilities they did simply because the only humans recruited as wizards were the ones with larger ki levels.

Most wizards were unaware that humans had the potential to do magic just as well as they did.

Kurama turned back to look at Hermione with a smile that made her look away slightly to keep the red off her cheeks. "So people like us?" he asked, playing along with knowing nothing of magic or their own abilities.

"Well…" Ron glanced at Harry before stuffing a muffin into his mouth, avoiding having to answer. Luckily for Harry, who was not shoving his face, Hermione took over the answering of that comment.

"Actually, you might have extreme magical capability. What else would Vol-…" she paused here to draw in her breath slightly, the others noting that it seemed like a way to gather strength, "Voldemort want you for."

Hiei glared at the three when the redheaded "Weasly" as he was called, shuddered at the mention of the name.

The other three looked clueless, though for Yusuke and Kuwabara, the fire demon was less worried about the permanent fixture on their faces.

"Who?" Kurama questioned as Hiei listened to the conversation, using his jagan to translate, though he spared the fox a long, unreadable look. Hermione glance to Harry, as if seeking permission to speak of said person, but never got to do so.

For at that moment Albus Dumbledore chose to step into the room, his now bright pink robes flowing around him. Yusuke did a double take, just to keep his eyes from burning at the sight of such a bright color on such a…older gentlemen….or any man for that matter.

And the little gold circles with long wings that surrounded his robes didn't help much either.

"Ah, good morning!" he announced in a voice much too cheerful for so early in the day (though not that early, in many opinions) and Yusuke winced at the tones. Though he couldn't understand the words, he got the general idea of what the old man was saying.

"Good morning, Dumbledor-_sama_," Kurama bowed low as he spoke, but the headmaster of the wizarding school would have nothing of it, waving his hand dismissively.

"No need for such a formal addressing, young Kurama!" he replied gleefully, almost swaying on the balls of his feet like a child at Christmas. While only confusing the fox, it was freaking the heck out of the two human detectives behind them. "Ah, that reminds me! I was hoping to perform a little spell, if you'll allow me. I think your other three companions will find it very helpful!"

Kurama seemed to be watching him with a rather clueless curiosity that Hiei could tell was a cover for an extremely careful evaluation of the man in front of him before he nodded with a small smile. "What is it you wish to do, Dumbledore-_sama_?"

Dumbledore gave that twinkling smile again, the one where his mouth smiled happily but his eyes glittered with a wisdom that could not be possessed by age, despite his. "I would like to cast a spell on your friends and yourself, granted, that will allow you to speak fluent English without a single thought."

Kurama glanced at Hiei, who glanced at the other two before nodding almost imperceptibly. Harry, who caught the glance like every other bloke in the room, decided to speak up a bit, "It won't hurt or anything. There's nothing dangerous about it, either."

The fox strengthened his smile, directing it at the scarred teen before he granted the older wizard the permission he wanted. Before Dumbledore could perform any spell, however, Kurama turned to the other two and spoke in quick Japanese, explaining the situation.

"Let him curse us?" Yusuke asked dubiously and the fire demon beside him snorted.

"You idiot, there's a difference between a curse and a spell. He's casting a spell to make you understand him so that he doesn't have to hold a wand to his throat just to talk."

The words were short and curt and Kuwabara glanced nervously at the old man standing before them smiling kindly with that twinkle in his eyes.

"Are we…sure about this?" he asked nervously, not wanting to have magic used on him, necessarily, before he was sure what it would do to him.

Hiei raised an eyebrow at them that clearly stated they were idiots and the fox just gave his customary, explanation smile. "Why not? We were transported several thousand miles across Ningenkai, chained up for a rather large black magic spell, cursed by men carrying wands-"

"Not to mention," Kurama continued as he lowered his voice to make sure that none listening would have the most curious idea as to catch one of their words and go find out what it meant, "we've fought countless demons, the Lord of the Netherworlds and the three lords of of us now is a lord and two of us are in line to be one. Taking in _all that_, you two are scared of a little magic?"

Neither of the boys had a comeback for that and so Kurama and a smirking Hiei returned their eyes to the headmaster, the former bowing his head in agreement.

Dumbledore smiled and took a step in approach to the fox. Kurama, while he could feel Hiei tense by his side, put a calming hand on his wrist, gently applying pressure to push him back a mere step.

"I propose beginning with you, Kurama," Dumbledore began, "as you are the only one at this time to understand, making it, well, a much less frightening event."

Kurama, still pretending to be a very innocent, nothing-ever-happens-to-me teenager, rather than the hardened criminal turned spirit detective mix of human and fox, smiled rather shakily and nodded. The headmaster assured him that everything was perfectly harmless (echoed by the golden trio behind him) and gently put the tip of his want to the fox's throat.

Hiei, while watching, grew much more than "a little tense" and he had to fist his hand to keep from drawing his sword. Every demon (and even a few humans) knew that the throat was one of the most vulnerable locations on the human body. Putting a potential weapon there, no matter the purpose behind it, was a violation of trust and alliance.

The so-called spell was over in less than five seconds, leaving Kurama feeling no different in any way. When the headmaster pulled away, he blinked in surprise before bringing a hand up to the location where the tip of the wand had gently lain.

"That was easy," he spoke with no trouble and had to force surprise onto his face at the result that he had expected all along. He had meant to speak in Japanese but what had come out was fluent, unaccented English.

He looked at the others in a more mild surprise, raising an eyebrow. Hiei narrowed his eyes and spoke four concise, short words in curt Japanese, "Can you understand me?"

Kurama, who suddenly felt this was not such a good idea, shook his head nervously but was sooner cut off by Dumbledore. "This spell will only be temporary, of course," he began, turning the fox's attention back to the headmaster, "as it removes all capability to speak or understand any other language. It is a…temporary solution until we can get you a translation device."

The fox nodded, glancing to Hiei. The jaganshi nodded curtly, turned and gave that entire speech in about five words to the two detectives.

Cursing, or blessing (since "Spelling" someone wasn't the correct term in these circumstances) the two more human detectives did not pose much of a problem. Kuwabara looked slightly nervous but holding onto his manly "gun-ho" pride and Yusuke simply had to keep a lock on his demonic instincts when the wood touched his neck.

Hiei, however, was a much harder situation to win over. Kurama had to debate with him mentally for several seconds before he finally acquiesced, having to agree with the fox that explaining how he could speak and understand English only when his forehead glowed would eventually lead to great trouble.

However, the term "acquiesce" was not written in the dictionary to cover the fact that the kitsune practically had to hold the fire demon's arms behind his back to keep him from grabbing and vaporizing the old man's so-called wand (Hiei acknowledged it only as a stick under the current situation.)

"There, all done!" Dumbledore claimed as he finished, taking a step back. All four of them now understood his words with no trouble. Hopefully they wouldn't have to pose any cover stories that would require personal chat beforehand because they now were out of that option, seeing as the only thing coming out was going to be English; the language open to everyone in the room.

Kurama bowed down some, the other two boys still in giddy shock from witnessing their first positive use of magic (it was such a big deal when, on the other hand, demons they had both accepted in seconds) and Hiei simply in a bad mood. "Thank you," the fox replied, standing straight up in his rather feminine, but strong aura.

Hiei once more cast a long glance to his kitsune companion as the headmaster summoned them all to sit down with the other three. But before he could contemplate saying anything (not like he would have in front of everyone) Hermoine's sudden outcry cut him off.

"Kurama, your hands!" She was staring in a rather horrified shock at the two thin, pale hands wrapped in white bandages. Or, more correctly, strips of ripped up scarf. Glancing over to Hiei, Harry realized he wasn't wearing the scar he had adorned yesterday.

Following her gaze, Kurama raised his bandaged hands and gave a smile. "It's nothing to worry about; I burnt them before we came here…oh," he suddenly made a falsely surprised face as he realized his small slip up that he needed to cover up. "…I suddenly don't remember how I burned them…How curious."

"Indeed," Dumbledore added in, staring at the four with his once-more twinkling eyes.

Hermione immediately pushed her chair away from the table and took Kurama's hands in her own, pulling off the makeshift bandage despite Hiei's tense movement stopped by the fox, and the kitsune's surprise. She looked at the acid burns from releasing Yusuke from his chains and drew out her wand.

All three of his companions tensed this time, the fire demon reaching again for his sword but Kurama smiled at Hermione as she muttered a single word in Latin. The wounds on his hand began to heal themselves, stitching skin back together.

"That's amazing," Kurama muttered, always remembering to play his role as a normal, average teenager who had no experience with the supernatural at all. "Thank you!"

Hermione blushed slightly but nodded and quickly retook her seat. Ron was glaring at her almost jealously, as easily noticed by the others in the room. Kurama flexed his fingers and took the ripped scarf back into his pocket, hoping to buy the fire demon a new one with the next chance he got.

"Well then," Dumbledore began with his eyes twinkling behind those glasses of his. "Shall we try to get to the bottom of what has happened to you four?"

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 3_

End

-o-o-o-

Alright, totally sucky ending.

I hate the second half of this chapter. I love the explanation phase but I just couldn't get the latter half to cooperate with me.

My apologies for those of you who agree.

**Author's Notes: **

…_the little gold circles with long wings…_ These would be snitches. I was trying to describe them in a single sentence.

_Ankokuna Bujusukai_: The Dark Tournament

_Kurama's General Explanation_: I hope this was clear. I don't know how else to clarifgy, so if you're lost, leave it in a review or e-mail me!

**End Author's Notes**

Please put any further questions or confusions that I have not explained adequately into a review or an e-mail.

Thank you all for reading!


	5. Undisputable Choices

**Disclaimer**: If I owned either, Sirius and Kuronue would both be alive, the latter fighting Hiei for Kurama.

**Notes**: Lalala la lala la laaa la!

I think I might have missed the B Flat there…Notes are so hard to sing on paper…not that I can sing off paper, either.

**-o-o-o-**

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 4_

Undisputable Choices

**-o-o-o-**

"It is obvious what we must do," Dumbledore spoke calmly as he stood from the table, drawing deft fingertips across the rough wood. His eyes twinkled behind those glasses, but his face was serious and solemn.

The faces of the four staring back were anything but. The single human of the group along with his demonic lord of a best friend were sitting at the kitchen table with eyes dulled and lids half closed, hardly awake to recall what the headmaster had just said. The third member of the group was directing a ruby gaze off at some random wall in uninterested annoyance. The final member of the group was the only one seemingly paying any attention at all to the older man, and his eyes were alight with interest, if not confusion.

"Obvious, sir?" Kurama asked, honestly perplexed opposed to how he and the other three had been feigning confusion and oblivion over the last four hours of constant questioning. They had been relatively efficient in giving Dumbledore almost no information as well as not slipping up or revealing their cover (an accomplishment Kurama hadn't been so sure they could achieve, what with Kuwabara and Yusuke having to donate their two cents into the conversation). "And…what is it we must do?"

The old professor smile a little wider and a little softer at the knitted brows on the redhead's young face. He gently paused his fingers on their trek across the wood of the table, bringing his hands together into a pinnacle.

"Our solution is quite simple," he began, having thought hard about what to do with the four Japanese children that sat, lost before him. "You will attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry until this matter can be brought forth into light."

There was a very long silence that followed up that declaration, in which his four "students" just stared at him, all in identical looks of complete loss.

However, while the silence was long, Yusuke's tolerance for the recent suggestion was not.

"What?" he shrieked out, clambering up from his stool fast enough to knock it down to the kitchen floor. He slammed both palms down on the table, staring at Dumbledore in absolutely horrified shock. "You want us to do WHAT?!"

"Yusuke, please," Kurama began, put a gentle hand on his forearm in attempt to pause his onslaught that could recklessly cause the loss of their cover.

"No, Kurama!" Yusuke protested, but did not pull his arm out of the soft-handed grip. "We get transported half way around the world, are almost sacrificed to some Pagan god (for all we know) by a bunch of _wizards_, and _this guy_ is worried about our _education_?! You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

Kurama cringed slightly and muttered something below human hearing, politely requesting Yusuke to watch his mouth and his choice of language.

Dumbledore didn't notice and instead began in a calm, explanatory voice, "Please, I understand how random and unorthodox this decision must seem to you four, but give me a chance to explain my reasoning."

When none of the boys made move to interrupt (more than likely because Kurama was shooting warning looks to Yusuke and Kuwabara) Dumbledore continued in his same gentle but proud tone, "My school, Hogwarts, is one of the safest locations in the wizarding world. There are few other places that are farther from Voldemort's reach. There, you will be safe."

Yusuke caught Kurama's eye in a light glance, which was quickly transferred to Hiei. It wasn't returned, considering he was still glaring in annoyance at that poor, innocent wall.

But the exchange between detectives was enough. They would be safer in Hogwarts…or just better bait?

The older professor continued when no interruption was made. "You will attend the school as students as a cover up to hide your presence. My colleagues in the Order of the Phoenix have discussed it, and we will station five metamorphmagus Aurors – they are like our…wizarding FBI, if you would, but who are able to change their appearance by will – to pose as exchange students from various parts of the world. In this way, there will be no reason for raised suspicion as there would be if we introduced four new students only from Japan."

Kurama nodded, now understanding the situation. It was a cover up for where the four would be.

It was obvious that this "Lord Voldemort" would look for them, most likely relentlessly. It wouldn't take that much of a stretch for the Dark Lord to guess they might be hidden at the school, among other places.

But it wouldn't take any stretch if four new students showed up with no explanation as to why Hogwarts was suddenly hosting a Transfer Program. While a cover up with these…Aurors wouldn't be that hard to see through, it would be easier to overlook ten new transfer students from various regions, rather than four from one region.

It was a messed up way to twist a poor cover up plan away from the truth. The truth being that Dumbledore and his Order were going to use these four as bait to draw out Lord Voldemort.

Kurama had no doubt about this conclusion, and was relatively certain his fellow comrades felt the same way. He hadn't yet decided if the old man before them actually cared for their protection, and might not know for some time. For now, all he needed to know was that they were the worm on the hook

And knowing that the bait didn't usually survive the fishing trip, he knew he'd have to make sure their little worm wasn't eaten first.

Reluctantly, he voiced his agreement and his opinion, at least in the cover up, keeping his theories of worms on hooks to himself for the time being. Yusuke and Kuwabara protested vehemently, but it yielded nothing and ended with a "shut up or die" glare given by the shorter fire demon, whose annoyance was bottling up and soon to boil over.

In the end, Kurama managed to excuse him and his friends from the kitchen to return to their rooms for some rest, knowing full well that they would need to discus things in private amongst themselves. Dumbledore graciously allowed their leave, still rambling on in giddy excitement about preparations, things they would learn, things they could teach the other students, and how magnificent this year would be.

It disgusted Hiei just how fake this façade was appearing to be. The old man mentioned nothing of the danger this would impose on his school, of the danger this imposed on the four of them, of anything but the positive. It was as if he was used to dealing with such gullible people that he had no reason to believe anyone could even think of the negative.

It was ridiculously false and it was already beginning to wear on his nerves.

-o-o-o-

There was a huge sigh than echoed through the room as Yusuke flopped down on their worn, but large bed in the room they had requested. Kuwabara similarly plopped down into one of the several singular armchairs that scattered the wall with the fireplace set into its rotting wood.

Hiei was before the window before either of the two boys had touched their seats, boasting his particularly bad mood.

Kurama gave a light sigh, more so in exasperation of his comrades but also in the pent up annoyance and stress of fooling Dumbledore. The tricky fox could already tell they wouldn't be able to keep this up for very long.

It had turned out that, despite Yusuke's sharp mind, little could be contributed by anyone but Kurama, who had to continuously morph their cover story in his head just to keep up with the tests the old wizard had thrown at them.

He'd manage to keep up their rouge. They knew nothing of their past that involved surface memories, but long term memories rooted by emotion and trauma had to be kept. And he couldn't just fake it for himself, he had to manage it for the other three as well.

Kuwabara had given up after his first screw up, which was a barely avoided disaster (thank Inari that Yusuke's leg has good aim under a table). The detective had tried and given it a lot of effort to help his redhead companion, but his mind just wasn't the strategic type that could keep up with ever shifting lies. And seeing as Hiei simply refused to contribute anything at all (more so in spite of being forced to "learn" English via a spell) the pressure was put solely on Kurama.

The fox had a headache, but ignored it. He was often put in this position but he wasn't the type to bring attention to such. Yusuke would know it, of course, one of the reasons he always tried so hard to help in these situations. And Hiei would most likely notice…and not care.

Kurama held back the sigh for that thought, sliding gently onto the old mattress, somewhere beside Yusuke's dangling legs. The detective gave him a tap with his knee. It meant nothing, but at the same time it meant everything, and Kurama smiled gently at his friend's comforting.

Hiei spared a brief glare at both of them before he turned back to the window and continued said glare (somewhat intensified) onto the bleak, gray houses beyond the glass.

"So, Fox, we're not seriously going to that school, are we?" Yusuke asked, glancing at Hiei as he purposefully used his nickname. Kurama gave him a warning glance even as something sparked over by the window.

"I'm afraid we'll have to…" the kitsune spoke reluctantly, knowing his three friends would be less than happy to hear it. Well, okay, 'less than happy' was the understatement of the year.

"You're kidding me!" Kuwabara shouted out suddenly, having not expected the answer at all. Yusuke sat up as well, his eyes significantly wider.

"Fox-boy, you are kidding, right?" he asked, shifting back to his own common nickname. He was staring at Kurama with wide brown eyes. "I thought you were just making that guy _think_ we'd go to his school!"

"Yeah, Kurama!" Kuwabara continued for his best friend, not so relaxed in that armchair any longer. "We have to get back to Japan. The others-"

"-Will be informed of our absence by Koenma," Hiei suddenly cut in, not looking away from the window. His participation in the conversation surprised Kurama, but he glanced at Yusuke. The detective new those jabs would have gotten the fire demon's partial cooperation.

Kurama sighed.

"I imagine right now that Koenma has half of Spirit Realm searching for us, and Botan will have undoubtedly made cover stories for our families," the kitsune continued, about as pleased as the others were with the idea of Botan making up stories. They were always a little…out there.

Not to mention she seemed incapable of lying to Keiko or Shizuru. So both of them would know they were MIA and would be worried out of their minds for boyfriend and brother.

"Then why are we staying here?" Yusuke argued, grabbing Kurama's arm to capture his attention. "I say we get the hell out of here!" he said as he jumped off the bed, thankfully releasing Kurama so as not to pull him up as well.

"Yeah, we wait till they're all asleep and we just get out of here. By the time they figured it out, we'd be back home!" Kuwabara continued Yusuke's argument, getting up as well. Kurama just shook his head slightly, ready for a calm discussion of why not but, as always, he didn't get to discuss things calmly.

"You idiots." The fire demon chose that exact moment to once more contribute his two cents. "What, exactly, do you plan on doing once we get out of 'here'? We're a ways from Japan, remember?"

"So what?" Kuwabara sneered at the little demon, mocking his deeper voice. He raised his arms in a shrug, as if the answer were so simple he'd have to obviously educate the lesser demon. "We just open a portal and enter the Spirit World."

Kurama cut back in before Hiei could start an all out fight with his…less than polite explanation. "We can't just open a portal, Kuwabara," he began softly. "Remember what happened the last time we tried to do so?"

Sparks and something about coffee being poured on a computer lit up in the minds of both humans. As soon as recognition danced across both their faces, Kurama moved into his explanation phase, having these steps down by heart.

"Remember what I told both of you yesterday? Portals are opened using your energy?" Both boys nodded, having known that since they both developed their powers. "And that magic is, essentially, the manipulation of that energy?" Two more nods. "Then you would also know that it leaves faint traces behind when used."

Both boys nodded as well. It was how you tracked someone who's energy was no longer large enough to find by an average demon (meaning one without Hiei's Jagan or Kuwabara's sixth sense). Any use of ki would leave behind a faint residue, a trail to follow as long as the energy had been constantly used.

And the more ki used, the larger the residue and the longer it lasted.

"Therefore," Kurama continued, "the residues of these people's magic interfered with us opening a portal. There was so much residual energy in the air that the portal could not function correctly, unable to dictate which spirit energy was attempting to open and control it."

Yusuke nodded, supposing that made sense. It was like asking a computer to open a website page, but you keep changing the address before it has a chance to download the page. If you do it enough, the computer can't figure out which webpage to go to.

It sort of made sense.

"So we just go out into the country, away from all the magic," Yusuke said instead, still not giving up on the 'not going to school' idea.

Hiei scoffed at this, but still did not turn from the window. "You're as big an idiot as the oaf." Kurama sent a frown in Hiei's direction, but it was one of exasperation even as Kuwabara shouted at him.

"If you're going to say that, say it to my face!" he growled out, raising a fist.

Hiei calmly turned his head, looking Kuwabara right in the eye. "You're an idiot and an oaf." He then turned to look at Yusuke, ignoring Kuwabara's reddening face. "England is the headquarters of the wizarding world. You're not going to find a place without hundreds of years of residual energy - or magic - usage."

Kurama chose to take over before either could retort in anger and start, yet again, another fight. "London is the so called 'hub-bub' of the magical world. Unfortunately, wizards aren't aware of the traces they leave behind, so they make no effort to clean it up. I'm afraid we can't open a portal anywhere near here. Not for at least a couple hundred miles."

Yusuke and Kuwabara just stared at the redhead in utter horror. They were really, truly stuck on an island. They had no money, so they couldn't take a plane or train to any other part of Europe where the magical traces might be less.

And while places such as Ireland or Scottland might have less magical usage, enough at least so that they could open a portal, they would never make it that far without being caught by the wizards they were now housed under. With Kuwabara's human speed, they wouldn't make it before being found out and then detected by the wizards' 'Ministry'. If Hiei shielded them from detection, they would not only detect demonic signatures, but so would ever other magical beast within a thirty mile radius.

And that's not even stopping to consider what would happen if they were caught traveling inhuman speeds heading for Ireland of all places.

Not the kind of wrap sheet you'd get to brag about.

Kuwabara slumped back into his chair. "We're stuck then? We really have to go to that stupid school?"

Kurama gave him a comforting smile. "It won't be that bad. It actually makes some sense. None of us want to, but it may be the one place in all four worlds where we can't be summoned by Lord Voldemort."

Yusuke opened his mouth to question more about their unfavorable predicament but a knock on the door stopped him, and four sets of eyes, all varying colors, turned to their door. Kurama slid off the bed gracefully and crossed the room, opening the door with a loud creak.

The three young wizards – well, two wizards and a witch- that they had met last night and earlier this morning were standing before the door. Kurama smiled at them and welcomed them into the room. It was obvious by Hermione's bright eyes and Ron's fidgety hands that they were anxious and, most likely, beyond curious.

They had earlier gotten kicked out of the kitchen by Dumbledore (kicked being a polite request in this definition) in order for the older wizard to talk to the four mysteries in private.

Hermione didn't last four seconds within that room before she practically burst with her first fast-paced question. "Are you four really coming to Hogwarts this year?!"

Yusuke gave one long blink in which he had to take the time to figure out what she had just said, the question asked so quickly that the words had strung together. He gave a rather forced laugh, a hand running through his gel-less hair (could you believe the wizarding world didn't know what hair gel was?!)

"Uh…yeah, I guess so," he laughed out, making it sound as excited as possible, though it was hardly that. Hermione smiled widely as Ron made a spot for himself on the bed, rather pushy for a guest, but Kurama said nothing.

"That'll be wicked!" he said in excitement as he plopped down, looking at the four of them with a wide grin. "You'll love it there; it's the best place in the world."

"Yeah," Harry agreed with a nod. "You guys really will. Do you know anything of magic right now?"

Yusuke glanced to Kurama, who merely smiled sympathetically and a little sheepishly. "I'm afraid not," the redhead said with a small shrug. "We don't remember much and, as you said earlier, we're pretty much muggles."

"That's not true!" Hermione interjected excitedly. "I also said that you might be extremely powerful when it comes to magic. I mean, if Vold-" she saw Ron shudder and rolled her eyes – "if You-Know-Who wants you four so badly, it must be because you've all got immense powers!"

Harry looked ready to agree again when he suddenly frowned. Hermione's words had sent a message through his head and something suddenly clicked.

Demons.

Lord Voldemort had been summoning demons two weeks ago. Or, at least, he had been searching for a means to. And now four people of unknown origins with no memory and a likelihood of extreme magical power had just showed up out of the middle of bloody nowhere some miles from Stonehenge, a well known magical site.

Something was adding up here that he wished would rather subtract.

"Hey, buddy, you alright?" Kuwabara asked, nudging the scared boy's arm as he noticed his skin blanch and pale. "You okay? You don't look so good."

Harry stared up at him with wide green eyes before he smiled, albeit a little shakily. "Nah, I'm fine." He shook himself mentally: these people were human. They looked human, acted human, and weren't demons at all. And besides all that, Dumbledore was letting them stay – even letting them come to Hogwarts.

And the headmaster would never let four demons into the school, right?

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Harry in question but he gave her a smile and a shake of his head, though his scar was sort of stinging against his skin. He avoided rubbing it lest Hermione and Ron worry about him further.

Kurama watched him carefully for a moment before he looked to the others. "Well, it may not be a beautiful day outside-" he commented on London's Summer Weather of Rain, "but we can still get out of this relatively crowded room. Perhaps you three could teach us more about this school..?"

Hermione's expression suddenly changed into further excitement and it looked like Christmas had come early for her, whilst Ron and Harry just groaned loudly. Kurama blinked, wondering what he had said wrong as the shorter redhead muttered, "You asked for it, mate."

Yusuke just laughed and clamped his arms around Harry and Ron. "Well, you're stuck with us too," he laughed out, already guessing why the two had groaned. He dropped his voice as Hermione already began explaining excitedly to Kurama. "But seriously- if we're quiet and patient we can sneak away and leave the two girls to their gossip."

Harry smirked and he held back a laugh, already liking this Yusuke. Ron's eyes widened slightly and, as they followed Kurama out, Kuwabara suddenly burst into laughter at the shorter redhead's words.

"Wait, Kurama really is a girl?!"

-o-o-o-

Ron had earned a right out glare for that comment, but not from the redhead it spoke of, but rather the frizzy haired brunette beside him.

And four hours later, he was still receiving that glare.

"Give me a break, already!" he finally cried out as they sat in Harry's room, the three on the bed with the four new "students" dispersed among the room. Yusuke and Kuwabara were at the foot of the bed, battling Ron and Harry in a game they had quickly learned to love.

Exploding Snape.

Kurama had raised an eyebrow at the name and they had explained the variation of a common game name using a disliked teacher of theirs, causing immediate understanding between Yusuke and Kuwabara. The fox had just blinked, actually confused on how one could possibly dislike a teacher so much.

He figured it was just the three students, and not the teacher.

Hiei was ignoring everyone and sitting in the window, as usual. Ron had asked about it and, being the ever best friend who had no evil intention for the fire demon at all, Yusuke had replied in a mocking British accent that Hiei was just "in a right poor mood, ol' chap."

As the boys entered their fourth game with a side game of arguing fiercely with Hermione over Ron's little "slip up", Kurama excused himself from his quiet observations and moved over to the window.

"Is he insane?" Ron muttered, watching the redhead move over to the spiky haired brat without any hesitation or fear. "That guy looks ready to kill him!"

"Oh, Hiei's not that bad," Yusuke said as he looked down at the game, smirking. "Isn't that right, Kuwabara?"

Kuwabara made a relatively odd noise that seemed akin to a scoff. "The shrimp's an asshole, but he'd never hurt Kurama," the orange-haired teen said as he glanced over at the two who were in silent conversation. "Definitely an asshole, though."

Yusuke just laughed as the golden trio exchanged glances. Harry was the first to probe for further information, not being the only one to notice that these boys were always relatively vague. The last four hours had gone with little information revealed about themselves, memory-less or not. It was mostly about the school and different types of magic they'd learn.

"How do you know?" he asked softly so that their voices would not carry. "I mean…he's always glaring, you know? He's kinda-"

"Terrifying? Rude? Anti-social?" Yusuke just laughed as he listed off the fire demon's well known traits. As his chuckle died, his eyes grew more serious. "Yeah, he's all those things, but he's also loyal, rebellious, kind in his own little way and…well, lonely. I suppose you could say he's like a child."

Kuwabara eyed Yusuke for a minute before bursting into a booming laughter. "Hiei, a child? Are you kidding me? The brat's more like an undersized, under-aged, perverted old man! Haven't you seen how he stares at my Yuk-"

Yusuke promptly punched Kuwabara off the bed. "Now, where were we?"

Ron and Harry stared at him in surprise before both began laughing and continued their game, despite the annoyed shouts and weak threats of Kuwabara.

They hadn't gotten a lot of information out of the four, but they had learned that Hiei wasn't as evil as he seemed, which comforted Harry greatly, who had been beginning to reconsider his demonic theory after spending the day with the sharp-mouthed, glaring boy.

A little more comforted, but with the horrible idea still lapping at the edges of his mind, he resumed the game against their two new friends.

Kurama leaned against the wall beside Hiei as the others continued talking. He had heard Ron's comment about his sanity, but had insisted on turning the latter half of that conversation out. He already had enough of a headache and would simply have to risk them losing their cover or pray Yusuke could handle it.

Red eyes glanced back at the fox but otherwise ignored him for a full three minutes in which they sat in an awkward silence. It was the kind of silence where either one knew both wanted to say something, but neither wanted to take the first step.

Hiei finally took the initiative. "Are you and Yusuke-"

"No, he was just teasing me."

"Hn."

Another silence passed between them, though it seemed inexplicably more comfortable. Kurama gently leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes to the setting sun that filtered into the room. Relief flooded through him, now that he understood the main reason for the fire demon's moods, as well as an understanding that it was a misunderstanding. Hiei's red eyes took him in for some time, the orange-yellow light that bathed his pale skin and turned his hair a fiery red.

When green eyes opened once more, the fire demon was staring back outside, beyond the glass confines. Kurama had never once found their bouts of companionable silence unwanted, or perhaps to be replaced by conversation. He understood that Hiei rarely had anything he needed to verbalize, and he enjoyed the fact that he could easily read the fire demon's wordless speeches.

So it came as a slight surprise when Hiei began talking again, staring off into the distance. "Don't let him call you 'Fox.'"

Green eyes widened slightly at the fire demon as those red eyes turned back to look at him, solemn and quite serious: demanding. A smile spread across the redhead's face and he simply nodded, closing his eyes once more.

"I won't, Hiei," he spoke softly, giving a moment of silence in appreciation of the fire demon's care. "He was just teasing."

"You shouldn't let him." Hiei shifted his weight on the window and followed up with a shift in topic, not wanting the subject under discussion to continue any further into why he even cared in the first place. "I don't want to go to this stupid human school, Fox."

Kurama gave a soft sigh and that smile sank a little. "I know, Hiei, I don't want to go either. But I-" he stopped, unsure of what to say. Red eyes turned to glance at him once again; unreadable ruby eyes. "…I didn't know what else to do. I was out of options."

Hiei simply nodded, and surprisingly did not turn back to the window. "I know, Fox. I wasn't blaming you." After those words, spoken while his eyes locked onto the fox's vermillion, he turned back to the window. "I just don't like it."

"I don't either," the fox said with a light smile. He never seemed to remember what Hiei was like when the fire demon was soft and kind and caring, but at the same time he never seemed to forget. "It's dangerous going into unknown territory. And if we are discovered…There is no certainty that we will remain unharmed."

Hiei's nod was almost imperceptible as he watched the setting sun turn the surrounding hills and grey houses a deep purple. "If we are discovered, you will be held responsible, being our so called 'spokesman.'"

Kurama nodded once more, staring at the same setting sun but seeing a very different image than the fire demon beside him. There was a long, drawn out silence between the two best friends that seemed to end any conversation they had started, and both remained in the contented quiet.

They ignored the bursts of laughter and shouting from the others in the room, the setting sun that cast them in shades of orange then red than pink and purples until finally a blue darkness descended around them. They sat in perfect happiness as they watched the world pass outside.

It wasn't until the sun had completely vanished and the others laughter had begun to quiet down into complaints of hunger that Hiei resumed the conversation with words that sent green eyes wide and blinking in surprise at the unusually gentle speech of the fire demon.

"I won't let you get hurt, Fox."

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 4_

End

-o-o-o-

I really, really, really liked writing that one and thew in some H/K fluff for you fans. I'll keep throwing it in every few chapters to fuel everyone's HxK needs.

Plus, I happened to enjoy it greatly. It was too cute to resist.

**Author's Notes**:

_Dumbledore's reason for dragging the Tentei off to school_: Hopefully everyone understood this. If there's any confusion, let me know and I'll either e-mail you an explanation, or get more of it down in the next chapter.

…_It was ridiculously false and it was already beginning to wear on his nerves..._ Has anyone noticed that Dumbledore is fake happy all the time?! I've always read Dumbledore as this guy who smiles no matter what, and sometimes it isn't always just to comfort his students. Sometimes it seems totally pointless, like avoiding problems or acting like it'll all be okay in front of the students.

Sometimes kids need to know they're really in danger!

_The portals_: I hope this was explained well enough. I used a couple of analogies in hopes it might help get the idea across. Again, review me with any questions!

…_Koenma has half of Spirit Realm searching for us…_ Don't worry, this won't be touched on for a while, but it is in fact happening. Just wait…oh….three chapters. Three sounds about right. Maybe four. Then we'll touch up on Reikai movements.

…_Hermione's …suddenly clicked…Demons…_ Okay, I didn't really want to go into this in this chapter, and I think my hesitancy is obvious and effected the chapter somewhat. Sorry about that. Harry will explore this more when there's a chapter focused more on the trio than our four. I didn't want to rush it, but I didn't want to leave him clueless. Honestly, Harry may be a bit of a ditz when it comes to remembering important information about Voldemort's doings, but I think something along the lines of SUMMONING DEMONS might stick out in bold letters in his brain.

…_And the headmaster would never let four demons into the school, right?..._Oh, don't we just love foreshadowed clueless-ness? Nah, it's not as bad as it seems. I don't take Dumbledore as a complete idiot, and I'll prove it in later chapters.

…_actually confused on how one could possibly dislike a teacher so much…_Come on, Kurama is such a straight A, goody-two-shoes that it's hard to see him accepting a teacher as just pure evil!

Plus it's a cute image. But he will learn. He'll learn as soon as he has a class with Snape. –insert evil laugh here-

…_kind in his own little way and…well, lonely…I suppose you could say he's a child…_ I love portraying Hiei as a child in his own right. By that I mean he is an adult, he is fierce and can take care of himself but emotionally, he is little more than a child. He was never loved as a baby, didn't have much of a childhood, and had a pretty horrible life until he met Kurama.

If you had never been taught the ways of the world from a child's eyes, than when you met Kurama, the first kind person in the world, I suppose emotionally you would begin to love the fox (among other reasons, ne?), but in a very childish way. In this way, Hiei would have realized just how lonely he is.

So that's my partially psychological breakdown of our favorite fire demon. ;)

…_Yusuke promptly punched Kuwabara off the bed…_ Kuwabara was about to say "Yukina" which is something that he _may_ know if they were really under a memory spell. However, Yusuke knew that not only was it pushing it, then the trio would ask who she was, and Kuwabara would begin rambling, throwing their entire cover away.

…_Are you and Yusuke-…_ While I've never actually participated in the writing of a Yusuke/Kurama, I suppose that I could see it. However, that would only be if Hiei was out of the picture. For instance, I can see it as a comfort factor after Hiei died, or rejected Kurama.

More than anything, I see Yusuke and Kurama as very close friends. More so than a normal friendship, I see that relationship as Yusuke, who is not often academically smart, being quick to pick up on emotions. I find it inexplicably cute that Yusuke could comfort Kurama in his relationship with Hiei.

And I love a jealous Hiei.

…_You will be held responsible, being our so called 'spokesman'…_ Seeing as Kurama is the one making up the lies and speaking for the group, he would most likely be held as the leader and therefore responsible for all of them. This would put him in the most dangerous situation. Of course, we all know that Yusuke is their one and only leader and would be the one standing up for them all. Don't let the words confuse you – Yusuke is the only leader of the tentei. :D

**End Author Notes**

:D Thanks everyone for reading! I hope you all had a fun time with this chapter, and we'll see what else I can get out during the next few weeks!

Please review, if you would be so kind!


	6. Seals, Squeals, and Deals

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Harry Potter, the 7th book probably wouldn't be the last and there would have been demons in it, damn it!

**Notes**:

**HIATUS: **Please, everyone, do not fear these words. You will NEVER have to fear these words in reference to this story. I like that most of you enjoy this story enough to mention several times that I should not drop this story. Keeping Quiet will see an end, even if it takes me years (which, with my update schedule, could be likely). This story will not be put on hold (though it might seem like it has due to, again, slow updating schedule) but I will finish it (even to the neglect of my other stories)

**-o-o-o-**

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 5_

Seals, Squeals, and Deals

**-o-o-o-**

"Wait, I still don't understand what we're doing!" Kuwabara complained as he tagged along beside Yusuke, trailing behind the others. The others consisted of Harry, Ron, and Ron's younger sister, Ginny, who were just to the side and ahead of them with Hermione and Kurama vividly exchanging study tips ahead of them.

Around the group of seven children walked a number of adults: Lupin, Moody, and the father of the Weasley boy.

Hiei was nowhere to be seen; at least not by these magical humans. He was following them from the rooftops, refusing to mingle in the thick crowds of this 'Diagonal' thing, or whatever it was called. Kurama had tried to warn him away from it – telling him what would happen if he was caught, but the fire demon would hear nothing of it.

And it only put more strain on Kurama to come up with an accurate lie for how Hiei would be following them but out of harm's way.

"We're buying the things we'll need for this year's term, and the things you'll need so you can look like transfer students," Ron replied, his voice lower when he mentioned their cover-up plan. They were in public where anyone could listen so, technically, he shouldn't have said it at all, but the four around him already knew no one was listening.

They were observant that way.

The 'less observant' adults that were tagging along as bodyguards ('babysitters' in Hiei's less than friendly terms) gave the redheaded boy a warning look. Their cover was not to be blown, especially in such unfriendly times where any passing wizard could be loyal, or forcefully loyal, to the enemy.

"Like what?" Yusuke mumbled, irritated that they were going to this school; annoyed that they were being dragged _shopping_; pissed they were being watched and couldn't even utter a word of normalcy (meaning demonic talk – anything but _normal_ to anyone but _them_). And yet despite all that, he was lost in amazement at what he saw around him.

The store windows displaying items he wouldn't ever have dreamed possible (some of which he wasn't quite sure what the hell they were and who the hell would have dreamed them up), coupled with the _very_ oddly dressed humans walking around, was enough to quell his irritation to a manageable level.

"Well, books, for one," Harry answered as they wandered the overly populated streets of Diagon Alley. "I suppose we'll head to Flourish and Blott's next to get 'em."

Yusuke and Kuwabara both shared a groan at not only the promise of more shopping in the overly crowded streets of this weird place, but the promise of _books_. "Kurama will be thrilled," the orange-haired member muttered in dread. Of course, school meant studying; one reason he knew Yusuke had ditched all the time.

Kuwabara, while not a mathematician himself, had learned to have some respect for education. He was currently enrolled in a lower-grade college but a respectable one nonetheless. And despite his already developing career in the veterinary practice, reading text books was still one of the things he hated most about school.

"At least the book store won't have a rollercoaster entrance or a fireplace hazard," Kuwabara muttered more to himself than his best friend.

The four of them had already survived their first test on what these freaks called the "floo network," which was really nothing more than the innate (and very disconcerting) ability of traveling by fireplace. Hey, some people used portals, but he supposed fireplaces were more…stylish.

After surviving the green fire (which Hiei had looked at with much disdain) and the tumble out of their mode of transportation (of which only Kurama had successfully maintained balance on two feet - Hiei had tumbled and stood up quicker than the human eye could follow), the four had arrived in a giant building constructed of mostly white marble (of which seemed ready to tumble over at any point considering it tilting awfully so) and filled with nasty little creatures running about in a muck worse than the ogres of Koenma's office.

This was called the wizarding bank, which had led into a stomach-wrenching trip to get the students money, which consisted of these three weirdly shaped coins. They weren't like yen at all; closer to the Makian money with which Hiei and Kurama were most familiar.

But before they had successfully retrieved their odd allowance, they had to deal with the lowly goblins (which were truly nothing more than a low class of demons that had traversed the worlds generations ago, long before the barrier was erected) and that seemed disgusted by the presence of these four rather oblivious characters in their bank.

Until Hiei threatened that he would rip their ears off and then feed those appendages to them.

They seemed to direct their discriminating gazes elsewhere after that.

The ride down into the bank vaults (which Hiei found ridiculous – such a precaution was one more of show than of true security) with Moody rambling on about the dragons and keys and locks (which Kurama thought of as over-exaggerated and heavily wasted – he could break into the place without ever actually setting foot into it) was a rather horrible experience, ending in two upturned stomachs (though Yusuke had boasted and gone "no hands" the entire ride), a turned up nose, and a rather green looking fox. All of which left both Hiei and Kurama to conclude that this place was not built to keep out demons, as it was rather pathetic to write a warning note that clearly wouldn't be backed with anything beyond human standards.

But walking down the crooked street an hour later (with more bags than they could carry and, thankfully, settled stomachs), Kurama ignored the conversation going on behind him as he continued discussing what purchases would be necessary and what magic they should research to keep up. As Hermione was extremely eager to explain (overly so) anything he wanted to hear, he maintained her company near the head of the group, Arthur and Madeye walking several paces before them.

"Well, it's pretty much safe to say you won't know everything you'll need," she had started at the beginning of the conversation. "You can't learn five years worth of information in the week before term starts.

"But that's okay!" she had quickly continued at Kurama's light frown. "It will fit with you being a transfer student, because you'll have learned differently."

The fox nodded, knowing that they could cover any sort of fall out with their own reiki, saying it was how they learned in their home of Japan. But he couldn't tell Hermione that – not yet. They weren't supposed to know they had reiki, or powers, or anything, for that fact.

Speaking of such a topic, or more thinking it in Kurama's case, they couldn't keep this up much longer. The memory spell he had used as their excuse and cover up held specific parameters to their situation that they were hard pressed to follow now, let alone continue.

They could remember traumatic or emotional events from their lives, but not anything around it or about it and certainly nothing else. And more so than that, the memory spell would slowly wear off, allowing them more and more memory access, most likely during the night when they were asleep and their minds had time to churn.

The problem was in letting more and more memory seep through when all you could do to instigate it was act.

Similarly, a traumatic event that reminded them of past pains would also awaken their memories, and not in the manner of a slow increase but a sudden return of the lost thoughts.

And that was perhaps harder than pretending they gained more each night, for what would one use to awaken memories? A "traumatic event" was not easy to fake and, even if they could, what would it awaken? They certainly couldn't have a demonic attack, or even a physical fight because they would have to make new 'false' memories to cover the fact that they knew of demons and fighting, which became an endless circle of lies thicker than a black widow spider's web.

Kurama sighed inwardly as, was the world and his life, his companions were little help and only hindered most of his hard work. Hermione was talking again so he tuned back in to her conversation, trying to forget the stress of keeping Kuwabara and Yusuke on the low and Hiei in quiet contempt.

"But you could always get a few books, if you wanted to learn about some of the things you'll be seeing," the frizzy haired girl said with a light shrug. "I could recommend some great ones."

Her voice betrayed her attempt at a calm approach to the subject. Her feigned nonchalance was not lost on Kurama, who realized how she was praying behind pursed lips that he would be a fellow bookworm.

So he gave her his most charming smile. "Of course, I would like that very much." He watched her blush slightly then look away quickly. If his human looks had only one redeeming quality, it was that he could easily charm a girl away from delving into places she wasn't wanted.

Hermione was a beyond-intelligent girl; she bordered on being a genius. Although not at the IQ level of such, she absorbed anything she heard and filed it for later use, always able to bring up some distant information she read in some outlandish book up to ten years ago.

Kurama silently thanked Inari for his charm, knowing he'd be up a certain creek without a paddle if he hadn't. While the frizzy haired girl was by no means "awe-struck" as some of the less intelligent and ditzy girls (Hiei referred to them as brainless vessels of female pheromones), Hermione was still easily distracted from a topic with a well-practiced smile or the accidental brush of skin to skin.

While the fox had the decency to feel it was ultimately wrong to use her femininity and his charm to stop her intrusion into a wary topic, he had to do everything and anything in his power to keep her from finding out too much.

But damn, was she nosy.

"What books would be best, in your recommendation?" Kurama asked softly in turn, keeping her mind churning with the topic of books, rather than back to the unsettling questions she had been firing off since they first met.

Could they remember anything of Japan? Did they see Voldemort? Could they explain the situation they were in when they were summoned? Did they know how they were summoned? What were they doing before they were taken? Where were they? Did they hear anything before they were summoned?

And those were just questions about the actual calling the four had survived. She hadn't stopped there, prying as deeply as she could when one made a slip-up; either of having a memory or hint of knowledge of who they were and how they got there.

It was bad enough that she had already read an entire book on memory spells and could quote every bit of it – such as how they weren't supposed to remember each other, yet the four boys did.

She was the biggest cause of his headache yet, more so than the old gentleman wizard with the half-moon spectacles or the greasy haired mongrel whose beady eyes seemed to follow them wherever they went in that damp, grey house.

"_Hogwarts, a History_ is a great book to start on, though it is rather thick," she commented, letting the last bit of her sentence trail off as Arthur Weasely pulled open the door to the bookstore, motioning for the children to enter.

As Kurama motioned for ladies first, following Hermione just behind, he replied, "Length is no dilemma. I seem to have time on my hands and I am a fast reader."

'_A man after my own heart!' _Hermione joked at her own thoughts, though she briefly flickered a glance over to Harry and Ron. Why couldn't they be more interested in actually learning?

Although…she didn't truly have the right to criticize them, especially not after last year. Fifth year had been difficult on all of them, especially Harry. And not just because of…what happened at the ministry, but because of all that lay between.

Building the D.A. in the Room of Requirement had meant a lot to all three of them, but had shown Hermione that her two best friends had learned, if not slowly than rather hazardously.

She sighed quietly to herself. So they weren't the bookish type, but they did care about learning.

"Is something wrong?" her new redheaded friend asked from beside her, a gentle but slightly concerned look on his face. She gave a nervous smile in return, more so because he had caught her thinking about the tragedies and hopes of last year than anything else.

"Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. Er…follow me and I'll show you some of those books," she quickly amended and started pushing politely through the crowded shelves of books.

Kurama shot curious looks at each of the shelves, catching glances of the titles. He was just pondering what could possibly be divulged in _Misfortune, Misery, and Mayhem: 101 Ways to Make Mischief, _when he felt a presence appear behind him with the soft displacement of wind.

Not even glancing around, he murmured as he raised a finger to run across his lips gently, "That was very dangerous, Hiei, and highly unnecessary."

"Hn," came the infamous reply as Hiei stood behind him with his arms crossed.

Kurama gave a sigh but smiled when the fire demon cocked his head ever so slightly to the side and rolled his eyes – as close to an apology as the fox was ever going to get.

"Well, at least try not to blow our cover," he admonished softly, looking upon the fire demon with tired eyes.

Hiei set him with a glare that dared him to continue the insult to his intelligence. "I am not so stupid," he replied with a bite in his voice but loosened his tense stance when his closest friend merely stared at him with something akin to remorse. "You look tired, fox," he mumbled instead, glancing away from those green eyes. "You should not be out in this crowd of hum-" Hiei stomached a growl, "…people if you are weary."

Kurama's face lit up with a light smile at the fire demon's concern, which was rarely shown and given even less. "I am fine, but this…accident of ours is weighed heavily on my ability to lie and pull it off. Thinking on my feet isn't going to get us much farther – my legs are about to give out."

He watched as the fire demon looked him up and down before realizing he was speaking metaphorically. The fox could only smile, however, when his friend moved closer to him and stayed there for the remainder of their walk through the shelves – wary of whether the fox was kidding or serious.

Kurama smiled once more as he caught up with Hermione, his fire demon right behind him. She was pulling out a huge book, wrapped in old-fashioned leather, matching everything else they had bought, such as quills and parchment instead paper and pen (or laptop, in Kuwabara's point of view.)

They had quickly discovered that technology was something wizards didn't take for granted. All lights came from charmed candles and torches – there was no electricity. Homework would be written, once they got to school, on parchment and with a quill, as were all letters. There was a mail system, but it involved something with owls delivering them. Yusuke had laughed until tears streamed down his face at the idea of a bird delivering the mail.

Hermione hefted the book over to him with ease. Kurama held it with similar ease. The front of the book was ornate, the leather slightly carved and the golden words _Hogwarts, a History_ were carved delicately into the cover and binding of the book.

Hiei glanced at the book and gave a soft snort, looking up at him. "Recon?"

"As close as we'll get before we face the true thing," Kurama replied softly even as Hermione hummed along, scanning the shelves for other books that might be of interest to her new bookworm companion. Hiei merely nodded and glanced to the shelves himself.

As the two followed the nearly bouncing girl along the rows of books, Hiei would occasionally add a book to Kurama's pile, either mumbling an excuse for wanting to read it, or adding to the fox's recon. The redhead would give his friend a gentle smile each time, causing Hiei to turn away, his face often tinting a pinker color.

"Okay…that's as many of them as I think you'll be able to read before the end of summer. And after that you can borrow books from the Library at Hogwarts. They have as good a selection – if not better!" she practically sang her praises for the school as she moved along.

As they rounded the corner, they found Lupin standing before them, staring at a book on one of the higher shelves. His hair was as disheveled as always, resting across his forehead in a mess of light colored bangs. Pale skin, almost sickly so, bore scars that looked somewhat fresh, streaking across his forlorn face.

Hiei glanced at Kurama, seeing the same thoughts flittering across his friend's face. This man had lost someone dear to him. The fire demon could recall when Kurama bore that look – twice in his memory. The first was when he had nearly lost his mother, the second when they had encountered the Mekai and its three lords, including an illusionist and shapeshifter whose resemblance had, apparently, been similar to a lost friend.

Yes, this man had definitely lost someone close to him.

"Hello, professor," Hermione mumbled quietly, as if afraid to startle him or break his mournful trance. Lupin immediately looked up, almost as if startled before his eyes bore down on the frizzy-haired girl and his expression softened from sorrow to an endearing embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, you caught me with my mind wandering," he replied in a voice thick with emotion, though he cleared his throat to hide any such remains of it. "And you needn't call me 'professor' anymore, Hermione."

"Force of habit," was her reply and she smiled, trying to force the happiness to reach her eyes. The exchange was watched closely by the two demons, though they remained slightly back from the acquaintances, observing and storing the information for later when it might come into use. "What were you looking for?"

A strange panic seemed to flit across his face before he easily covered it back up with a smile. "Nothing much, and certainly nothing you need worry about," he replied easily, but his voice held a strained note. "Have you gotten your books for this year yet? Moody will be wanting to leave soon – he hates staying in one place for too long…" the man trailed off again and his voice hitched to a painful note. "Just like Sirius…"

"Oh Lupin…" Hermione's voice screamed sympathy – the desire to help him in any way. "I'm so sorry…I know he was the only other Marauder…"

The werewolf seemed to shake himself of his lone thoughts and smiled up at her, though Kurama thought he saw the smallest trace of wetness in his eyes. "I'm sorry for going off like that. I assure you that I am fine."

And yet Hermione could see that the man looked anything but fine. His sickly, pale appearance was far from being merely his condition, as the full moon was still two weeks away and nearly two passed. He held heavy bags beneath his eyes, which seemed almost dull and full of grief and longing.

Kurama knew that look. Kurama had worn that look before… a long time ago.

The frizzy-haired teen cleared her throat, hoping to help the conversation by switching topics. "We haven't gotten our school list yet, we were just about to do so. I was helping Kurama get several books he from which he could learn… catch up with what they'll be learning this year."

"Sounds like a wonderful idea," Lupin replied with a fresh smile, a genuine one this time. "Why don't I help you get the rest of your books, hmm?"

Lupin turned away from the shelf he was staring at, away from the book James had once bought so many years ago. It was a book that had taught them everything they needed to know to help out a friend…

Everything they needed to become animagus.

The werewolf let out a shaky breath but pushed it aside as he turned away from memories of his friends. They had done so much for him and he had been unable to protect any of them. He was unable to see Peter's true ambitions – or at least his inability and fear. He was unable to protect James, to get there in time instead of arriving hours after his friend had been murdered. He had been unable to stop Sirius's decent through the veil – unable to save his best friend's life and unable to follow after him.

The ex-professor was glad to have something to distract him from his grief, as everything he saw now reminded him of one of his friends, but mostly this latest loss. He led Hermione around the store, though the young girl new her way far better than he did.

Kurama and Hiei followed at a silent, leisurely place, happy when the crowds thinned and frustrated when they thickened, wondering if there was a single store in the entire Alley that wasn't filled to it's brim with chattering, pushy witches and wizards. The darker-haired, shorter of the two kept a close eye on Lupin, as the professor would turn around often and glance at them in an almost rushed manner.

He had a feeling that damn wizard knew something.

"He can smell me." Hiei turned in surprise when he heard his companion's soft, calm alto break through the chatters of those around them. He looked into those green eyes that were smiling softly.

"What?" Hiei growled out, annoyed by the vague and somewhat confusing confession from the redhead.

"He can smell the Youko," Kurama clarified, though it was certainly nothing the fire demon had wanted to hear. Crimson eyes widened ever so slightly before narrowing.

The fox was still smiling, so it must be a joke.

"That is hardly funny, fox," Hiei bit out, almost angry that Kurama would make a joke about his own safety, or the rest of theirs. If it was discovered that he was not human and, even worse, a demon, then they would all be in a considerable amount of danger. "No human can smell the fox in you."

Though Hiei certainly could. It was buried in the fox's human scents – a smell of dampened forests after a fresh rain fall, mixed with the soothing smell of newly blossomed roses, all of which mingled with the musk of a furred beast.

It was a scent completely unique to Kurama, but fashioned after the traits of most kitsune.

Kurama gave a light chuckle. "Why thank you, Hiei. You smell of cinnamon and pine, if you were wondering."

Hiei blinked. Had he been broadcasting his thoughts?

"Hn. It doesn't matter, no human can sme-"

"Yes, you said that already," Kurama gently cut in, that mysterious smile that screamed mischief still lighting his face. "But the man who walks ahead of us is hardly human. In fact, I believe he can hear our conversation as we speak."

Hiei turned red eyes that narrowed dangerously to the man before him. Lupin's shoulders tensed and Hiei cursed vividly in his mind. Why hadn't Kurama stopped him from speaking aloud?

_:How?:_ The voice screamed out, resonating in Kurama's mind, causing the fox to flinch. It wasn't often that the fire demon yelled – especially not telepathically and that _hurt_.

_:You're hurting me, Hiei:_ Kurama reminded softly even as he tried to show no sign, despite the shudder that racked his body as the pressure in his mind immediately eased.

What had suddenly started as an immense pounding within his head backed off to the normal, slight pressure of having another's presence on the outskirts of your thoughts.

The fox, however, couldn't blame Hiei much for his reaction. He had easily teased himself into releasing the information that Lupin knew he wasn't human when he should have openly shared such a discovery with Hiei long ago.

_:How?:_ Came the inquisition once more, still as angry but with a much softer tone.

_:He is a werewolf.:_ Kurama answered calmly. :_I can smell him as sharply as he can smell me, though he is not as highly masked by human scents…I confronted him this morning:_

Hiei's eyes widened and blazed with anger, and he turned. In one fluid moment he had pressed the fox up against the bookshelf, causing several of the patrons around them to gasp in surprise and even fear, most of them backing away or glancing curiously in their direction.

_:Why didn't you tell me?: _Hiei growled out, grinding his arm against Kurama's chest, keeping him pressed into the books. The fire demon, though shorter than the fox, was still an intimidating sight to behold. His eyes were level with Kurama's chin, forcing him to look up at the kitsune but that did not lesson the fire in his gaze.

However, the fox was not phased – he knew too much about Hiei to fear harm from him.

_:I made no mention of it because had I been discovered by this man, it did not mean the rest of you had to be revealed:_ He replied, his voice laced with reason and calm, though also a small apologetic note that asked for Hiei to listen. :_If he meant to harm me with his knowledge, the cover of a memory spell would have kept you three safe…perhaps.:_

Hiei's gaze hardened, half of him knowing it was the logical and wise thing to do – that Kurama was just trying to protect him – but the other half screamed angrily at the idea of the fox going, unprotected, into a dangerous situation.

Just like always.

But crimson eyes caught the looks of the customers around them, as well as Hermione and Lupin, who both stared at them, the first in confusion and the latter in slight apprehension. Slowly, Hiei pulled away, releasing Kurama from his binding against the bookcase.

_:Do not do that again, Fox:_ Hiei admonished, his voice full of concerned rage. :_Do not go into a situation unprotected if I can protect you.:_

Kurama blinked in pure surprise. It was the second time in less than twenty-four hours that Hiei had promised his protection – made it sound as if it was his duty and his desire to keep the fox safe.

Hiei noticed the look of surprise and saw what flittered across those eyes. His pride snapped at him and he quickly shrugged off the sincerity of what he had said. "Hn," he grunted, switching back to verbal communication. "I made you a promise, you stupid fox."

Kurama merely gave him a heart-stopping smile and then set off again through the somewhat confused crowd, though luckily the rows of shelves were narrow and did not allow many to see the spectacle. He moved up to Lupin and Hermione, giving both a similar smile, though sufficiently toned down.

"Forgive the delay. Hiei and I shared a brief moment of disagreement," he apologized and gave another smile to continue their shopping. His books were still held in his arms, having not even dropped upon the fire demon's sudden onslaught.

"_Disagreement_?"Hermione all but squeaked, wondering, with no small bit of fright, what a full out argument must be like between these two friends. She glanced at Hiei's crimson eyes, daring her to think anything other than what the redhead had clarified the situation as. She quickly looked away.

Lupin gave a tight swallow, forcing the lump in his throat down. "Very well, let's continue."

Hiei glanced at Kurama, who showed no change upon his face. _:What was this conversation about, exactly?:_

Kurama gave a light shrug as they followed but not enough to be noticeable to any stray passersby. He seemed ridiculously smug, enough so that Hiei paused briefly to question how tightly Youko was concealed within the fox's human form.

_:I was merely blatant about it.:_ Kurama stopped his train of thoughts by answering the fire demon's question. _:I told him that I knew he was aware of me and that I was aware of him:_

Hiei rolled his eyes at the lack of information coming out. _:And?:_

_:He made mention that others had brief awareness of it – suspicions and nothing more:_ Kurama continued as they walked the aisles. Hiei handed him another book to carry. _:But I was given his word that he would speak of his knowledge to no one: nothing beyond his own suspicions, that is.:_

Hiei frowned at this. There was no reason a wizard of his status and ability would dare to let a demon roam free. It was well known that the two groups hated one another, each one viewing the other as completely inferior and subservient. _:And how, exactly, did you manage that one, Kurama?:_

_:I told him I would look for the one he lost...:_ Kurama trailed off slightly, causing his best friend to frown further. There was something that was not being said.

The fire demon knew what the fox meant by his promise: he would search for whomever it was that the werewolf mourned. He had obviously made mention of his contact with someone in the Spirit World and his possible ability to bring that someone back.

Not that a wizard was likely to believe it.

_:And?:_

Kurama gave a small sigh, running a hand through his ever-neat hair, encountering no tangles. It was a sure sign that he was not happy with what he was about to say. _:I made a blood-pact with him.:_ He confessed with an agitated sigh._ :It was why I did not inform you of this encounter for I knew you would stop me:_

And hell yes, Hiei would have stopped him.

A blood pact was the binding contract between any number of people, sealed in blood and bound by that signature. It meant that whatever promise was made by this contract would be paid for in blood.

If one of its participants broke the agreement then he would be killed by the magic of the contract – his own blood would boil against him.

Hiei had heard that it was a horrendous way to die.

_:And what did you promise in return?:_ He growled out, his anger showing as his eyes once more lit with fire and heat began to radiate off of him. His fingers twitched to shove the fox back against the wall once more – to hit the brains back into him. How could the kitsune be so foolish as to make a promise with a werewolf of the wizarding world?

_:'Not to harm any of the students or member of the wizarding community unless in self-defense or against my individual will':_ Kurama quoted directly from the agreement they had drawn up in the dim light of early dawn.

Hiei paused to think about such an agreement. _:And his promise?:_

_:No word of my identity nor the knowledge of lies that I have created will be released from him through thought, gesture, writing, or mouth. In no way will the secret I entrusted him with be revealed:_ Kurama concluded much to his satisfaction. He knew that Hiei would find no flaw in the pact, as he had spent several hours last night looking for various loopholes or trigger marks.

There was nothing dangerous in the pact, as he would never harm a student under the given circumstances. It would all go well as long as Lupin upheld his part of the agreement.

Hiei, whose mind was traveling along the same thought basis even as Kurama gloated happily over it, was forced to come to the same conclusion.

_:Fine, but I still do not agree with your reckless actions.:_ Hiei's curt and rather tense reply came back into the fox's mind. _:Don't do something so stupid again, baka no kitsune.:_

Kurama merely smiled and laid a hand on Hiei's shoulder, causing the dark-haired fire demon to turn, looking up at those smiling green eyes.

"Thank you for your concern, Hiei," Kurama said softly. "I will not go without your protection ever again."

**-o-o-o-**

_Chapter 5_

End

__

**-o-o-o-**

Well, another ridiculously cheesy chapter ending but eh…deal with it. : D It might be the last one for a while, anyways.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and will review!

**Author Notes**:

…_Hiei was nowhere to be seen…_Yeah…so totally reckless and asking to be caught (as well as get the readers yelling at the author) but really – come one – would Hiei EVER willingly go into that crowded place?! If the book descriptions didn't do it justice, the movies certainly did.

No Forbidden Child I'm aware of that resides in the Yu Yu Hakusho Fandom would dare to walk among that crowd…at least not without decapitating ten people minimum.

…Okay, maybe only five decapitations…and one dismemberment.

Yeah, okay, then he might agree to it.

…_While the frizzy haired girl was by no means "awe-struck" as…_Alright, really, I have all the respect in the world for Ms. Granger, although I don't always like the way she's written. She is an intelligent, extremely quick girl who I think makes a great character.

However, she is in fact a girl.

And she'd have to swing the opposite way if she wasn't at least attracted to Kurama.

Take three seconds and think about that…let it sink in…aaaaand okay, now you can flame me for saying it.

…_That was very dangerous, Hiei, and highly unnecessary…_ And it seems our author today just loves putting in unnecessary Hiei complications.

Anyways, he just appeared behind Kurama. This was extremely risky considering that a boy his age (or…er….his age's appearance) would not be able to apparate. It would raise all sorts of questions that could, in the end, blow their cover completely.

But we all know that Hiei knows what he's doing.

We just hope I know what I'm doing….By god, I'd hope a lot on that one, if I were you.

"…_crowd of nin-' Hiei stomached a growl, '…people…" _If you didn't catch it – Hiei had to stop himself from calling the crowd around him _ningens_. A curious wizard (-cough- Hermine –cough-) might remember the word to be later translated.

It would be very odd to find your new exchange student calling those around him "humans" as if he weren't one.

Not that he isn't…right?

… _this man had definitely lost someone close to him…__ his eyes … seemed almost dull and full of grief and longing…_

After a vote cast some time ago (when this chapter was released) the Remus/Sirius relationship will not be platonic or romantic. Since it was a dead tie, the relationship will be close and it will be possible to view it as a friendship or a relationship. It's up to the reader to interpret. Thanks.

…_Kurama knew that look. __Kurama had worn that look before… a long time ago… _How you readers interpret the above mention of a pairing will also effect this statement:

Kurama is saying he knew that look from the time Kuronue died. Kuronue does NOT play a huge roll in this story: so it can be looked at either way.

…_Had he been broadcasting his thoughts…_ Hehehe, fun for later chapters. This will be explain in due time (due time being….the rest of the story. Hang tight – I'm evil)

**End Author's Notes**:

Well, that's about all from my end.

Actually, considering this is where I broadcast my thoughts on this chapter: I don't have any. I have not formed an official opinion about this chapter. Half of me is seriously disliking it. The other half hasn't chosen which side of the jury it should be on.

So let me know.

Thanks to KyoHana for beta-ing.

Thanks and Please Review!


	7. Seals, Squeals, and Deals Part II

**Disclaimer: **If I owned either Harry Potter or Yu Yu Hakusho, I don't think I'd be sitting here writing fanfiction….

**Notes**: You people are NO HELP! Do you know I got eight votes for a friendship between Sirius/Lupin, eight votes for a pairing of Sirius/Lupin, and eight unidentified or "non" votes?!

AHHH!! What the heck?!

Okay, so this is how it's going to work, because my little voting strategy didn't really work out. My bad, but what are the chances?! Alright, so I'm going to go with the middle ground the best I possibly can:

Sirius and Lupin will **not** be defined as lovers, however, they did "love" each other. If you'd like to think of that Love as being best friends, that is perfectly acceptable. If you'd like to see it as love between two men, that's perfectly good as well. I will do my best to write it so that it can be seen either way.

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 6_

Seals, Squeals, and Deals Pt II

-o-o-o-

Lupin watched as Hermione piled more and more books atop Kurama's arms – which seemed to have doubled from the last time Hermoine had done so to this time.

The werewolf watched as Hiei snuck a book off a shelf and slipped it onto the fox's stack, muttering a few words.

Wondering just how close a bond those two shared, he retraced the demon's earlier conversation with him…

_-o-o-o-_

_Lupin awoke from his sleep that morning in less than elegant graces._ _The light knocking on his door had him nearly tumbling from the jumbled sheets which only tangled around him and conspired to drop his lethargic butt upon the floor._

_Needless to say, it was not how he desired to awaken that particular day._

_He stumbled across the room, trying to contain the yawn that sent a quick spasm down his body, between his muscle and skin. It raised little goose-bumps all along his form. _

_Something in the back of his mind perked up – something telling him it wasn't the yawn that had his skin react the way it did._

_Heedless, he pried open the door, revealing himself to his early guest in naught but a pair of pants and a haphazardly pulled on robe that had seen better days._

_However, when amber eyes beheld the particular guest which graced his presence far too soon for the day to begin, he suddenly wished he had taken a moment more to dress properly. He pulled his robe tightly around his thin frame as wide brown eyes met those of emerald green._

"_C-can I help you?" he asked warily, trying to control his shaking a bit more. The goose-bumps had become more pronounced. His human nature was terrified by this prospective demon that stood before him. _

_His wolf side doubled its usual hidden presence – interest piqued at the demonic presence it had never been entitled to witness. _

_Lupin could feel a wave of disgust washing over him as his wolfish personality, buried deep within, stirred in a lustful manner. His counterpart wanted to play with the demon._

"_Good morning, Mr. Lupin," Kurama whispered softly, his Japanese traditions coming out in the translation spell through that gently drawn out word he remembered was an honorific of the culture. "I apologize greatly for waking you so early, but I must request an audience with you._

"_And….what for, Mr. Minamino?" the werewolf cautiously approached, wrapping his arms around him. It was meant to appear as confidence, but the wizened eyes of his guest easily saw the insecurity in the movement._

_He was kind not to take advantage of it any more than he did._

"_I am in need of your private council, sir," the redhead replied quietly, bowing his head slightly in the knowledge that this wizard could be a formidable enemy. "I…am aware of things we should discuss."_

_Lupin's blood froze in its respective veins, yet his heart seemed to double its pounding to compensate. "Wha-what?" he whispered slightly, his breath catching. He cursed the weakness of this, while his wolfish nature cursed his weakness in front of another of demonic nature._

_Kurama's eyes seemed almost sympathetic to the shock they had caused the wizard. "I am aware of the knowledge your wolf's nature has given you about me," he replied easily, though cautiously, as if afraid to provoke the man. _

_Emerald eyes caught the hand that reached into his robe's pocket and he quickly raised a hand, no weapon in sight. "Please, Mr. Lupin," he began in an even softer voice. "I do not want to provoke a fight: bloodshed is not what I am interested in."_

"_What are you interested in?" Lupin demanded, his grip on his wand tight, though the weapon remained in his pocket. It was his defense, a threat to the demon before him, but a reserved one that remained hidden for now._

_Kurama gave an almost sorrowful smile that appeared apologetic. "I merely wish to talk. I am in need of your council – as much as you are in need of mine."_

_He was overly polite, that much could not be denied. But he was a demon, and therefore, should not be underestimated or trusted in any manner._

_However, it went against everything Lupin believed to simply turn someone down because of what they were._

_He had gotten enough of that to last four lifetimes._

_And besides, he could hear the soft whisperings of the wolf. 'Do not judge the demon too quickly', it was whispering. Lupin decided, after a moment's hesitation, to take the leap of faith offered to him._

_So, however reluctantly, he agreed to meet the demon downstairs in little more than ten minutes – enough time for him to dress and splash a bit of water on his face. When he arrived at the base of the stairs, he found the redhead standing idly by the door to the dark House of Black. He was staring quietly out the curtained window, as if entranced by the grey weather of London outside._

_He turned as Lupin's foot hit the dusty ground of the foyer, but Lupin would have the first word this time as he adjusted his black robes about his thin frail. "What was it you wished to talk about, Mr. Minamino?"_

"_Just Kurama, if you would. I feel far too old when you address me as you do," the redhead replied with a small smile. He was trying to relieve the tension obviously forming before the conversation had even begun. "And I would rather not discuss anything here, sir."_

_It was obvious to the werewolf that the demon had caught him in the act. He had been attempting to keep them within __Grimmauld Place, to keep them where he would have backup. Where the others might happen to overhear the demon's confession of what he was._

_He didn't want to face this alone. He was already alone in too many things._

"_Very well," Lupin conceded and grabbed a heavy coat to wrap around himself. Since last school year's end he had found himself often cold and easily ailed and, in such trying times, he co__uld not risk catching yet another sickness._

_Kurama followed him with nothing more than the clothes he had arrived in. They had little the four guests could borrow: Hiei was far too small to fit in anyone's clothing, Kurama to lean, Kuwabara too tall._

_Yusuke fit pretty well in__ Harry's clothing, especially since it was relatively baggy on Harry to begin with, so it fit his muscular form._

_The redhead had politely declined clothing from the others, saying he would make do until they could buy new clothes themselves. He did, __however, accept Lupin's offer of a jacket._

_He wasn't sure __whose but figured they could live without it for a while. It's not like anyone would mind – if they noticed any change, it would be in the slightly rose-tinted scent mixed with the hidden musk of an animal and the soft supple taste of pine that hinted on one's tongue._

_Or so his wolf so happily described._

_They walked quietly among the rather dreary neighborhood of England. It was grey outside, a cold and windy day that threatened rain and promised the miserable weather of a London summer. _

_Even though not in the city of magic, they were near enough to it to still have the wonderful weather the bleary city offered its occupants._

"_I am sorry to have disturbed your sleep, sir," Kurama began after they had wandered some way in silence. _

_Lupin fidgeted. "If you get to request your name from me, I must do the same. __'Sir' makes me feel older than 'Mister'. does you, I am sure."_

_Kurama actually let out a small peel of laughter from that and it struck Lupin's ears as a ring of pure joy in life. He couldn't believe that such a thing came from a demon. "Very well, __Mr. Lupin, if I may call you that."_

"_Much better, thank you," the werewolf consented as he randomly kicked a small pebble that lay in the road they walked. Kurama's green eyes traced the rock. Lupin gave a tired sigh as he realized the demon was awaiting his initial reply. He rubbed the back of his neck. "I know what it is you wish to discuss, so lets get it over with, shall we?"_

_The laugh no longer rang through the air, but the amusement in his eyes was not missed. "Yes, of course. I am aware of what you are, __Mr. Lupin, as you are aware of me, and that secret we both hold close. Neither you, nor I, is fully human."_

_Lupin glanced over at him somewhat nervously. "Then you are not fully demon?" he asked curiously. It had not occurred to him that the man before him __might not be a full-fledged demon._

_The wolf scoffed at the thought that Lupin had not listened to his detailed description of Kurama's scent. He had completely ignored the human aspects of it. _

"_No," Kurama admitted, not exactly happy about how much he had already acquiesced to tell about himself. But he knew that to gain the werewolf's trust, such sacrifices would be made. "I am half human – not too unlike yourself."_

_Lupin spared another glance in his direction. "You consider a werewolf demonic?"_

_Kurama nodded. "I do__, indeed. They are descendents of full-blooded demons that passed their genes to humans through their unusual breeding habits."_

"_You mean biting," Lupin practically spat out and the demon could not blame him for his disgust in the race. Most demons looked down on werewolves, who were nothing but__ the result of generations of diluted demonic ancestry._

_Kurama nodded his approval but continued with his prior objective. "I could smell __your demonic blood probably at the same moment you were noticing mine. And I wish to discuss terms of keeping such a secret to yourself."_

_Lupin ground his teeth in a mixture of angry nervousness. "Why?"_

_There was a pause in Kurama's words before he responded, "Do you know what demons say about wizards, __Mr. Lupin?" he asked quite suddenly, though his voice was quiet. Lupin merely gave a shake of his head. "They say that you are all snobbish; overly prideful and disgusting because of your own inferiority that is shadowed by the false superiority you embellish yourselves with…Do you think that is true of all wizards, Mr. Lupin?"_

_The werewolf blinked. Of course not! It was preposterous__ to label an entire population under one stereotype. "No," he replied calmer than his original thoughts. "I mean, there are some rotten witches and wizards, but most are not that way!"_

"_Exactly," came Kurama's calm reply, as if he expected such an answer all along. "There are __**some**__, Mr. Lupin."_

_There was a gentle smile in his voice. "Demons are not so different from wizards and humans – we gossip and badmouth just the same. As with humanity, the bad nam__e falls not on the small number that truly deserves it, but the whole. _

"_I know the opinions of d__emons that you wizards spread with your tongues. We are slaves to bartered and murdered and nothing more. Disgusting creatures lower than you and viewed as animals incapable of emotion, intelligence, or kindness._

"_Sure, there are demons you do not wish to cross – just as there are wizards __with who you do not want to involve yourself. Many of my own kind I would gladly remove from the face of their world if only to lesson the disgust and inconvenience to me. However, that does not make me the wizards' stereotype," he concluded with a smirk, "just as I do not find you smug and snobbish."_

_Lupin paused to consider over the words he had just heard__. He had had the chance to look at life in such a way, bullied as much as he was by those that believed his wolfish nature to be all that mattered in his personality. But he had never applied it to that of demons, and realized his initial mistake in believing the man before him was evil merely because he was demonic._

_He relaxed somewhat as he realized that Kurama truly only wanted to protect himself from the wizarding community. "I se__e….and what would you say you were, then, Kurama?"_

_The fox gave a lower smile, as if he was holding a secret to himself. "I believe I am what I am. Like any human or wizard or demon, my personality is layered and not the reason I asked you from your bed."_

_Lupin's own humor c__ould not ignore it and he gave a dry chuckle. "Alright, I am listening."_

_Kurama continued without hesitation, now that he knew the werewolf would listen without prior judgments already in mind. "As I said, you are aware of my demonic nature. Have you discussed it with your colleagues?"_

_It immediately put Lupin on guard again. "Will my answer determine my current life span?"_

_The sharp look he received from those piercing eyes – was that gold in them? – was enough to inform him he had spoken wrongly. _

"_Please, sir, you stereotype me once more." The demon sighed. "I have no desire to kill you. Unlike many of my kind that brought about such an assumption, I am no lover of bloodshed. I know the value of life and do not take it without true reason. No, I ask becaus__e I do not want to be killed myself – nor kept in a magical prison to be tested upon and later killed for transgressions I have not committed. Nor do I wish to be sold into servitude. If you would remember, sir, I am here not of my own will. I do not wish to be here, and I do not wish to lose my life by such events beyond my control."_

_Lupin was quite for a long moment. He knew that the weakest of demons were often enslaved – used in servitude to the houses of wizards and under experimentation to learn of their kind. While the torturing experiments__ had not been done in years, to his knowledge, they had been done before._

"_I have not told the others," he confessed finally, "though they have suspicions of their own. Those masks you wore when summoned might have been ancient and nearly forgotten…but even the order knows they were not all meant to be worn by humans."_

_Kurama's expression was __wry. "Well, two of them weren't."_

_His words were the very co__nfirmation Lupin sought, and the werewolf immediately knew now just how strong a demon this man must be. "You know of the spell, then? I wasn't sure if you would…"_

"_Do not be mistaken," Kurama continued almost warily. "It is not common knowledge in the Demon World,__ either, taking into account just how old a spell it truly is. I have a…unique perspective on both the wizarding world and ancient treasures."_

"_So the others-"_

"_Do not know," Kurama finished. "And I wish it to remain as such, for now. If anyone is to tell them the full meaning of that spell, it will be me."_

"_You are close to them." It was not a question – Lupin could see the fondness in the demon's eyes. _

_Kurama nodded, his lips forming a thin line. "I did not lie to Dumbledore when I said we have known each other for some time," he replied almost lovingly. __"They have always stood beside me, as I have to them. They have saved my life many times."_

_Lupin looked surprised at the affection that ran so deeply in __those emerald orbs. "You would die for them…"_

_The demon seemed to come out of his distant thoughts, surprised at how he had let his emotions show. However, he gave a nod, knowing it was too late to hide it. "You are perceptive."_

"_I have seen such care in the eyes of Harry and his friends," Lupin replied with careful nonchalance, including a shrug._

'_Along with others,' his mind muttered to him but he quickly ignored it. Now was not the time to think of James or…_

"_Do you know what mask you wore?" Lupin suddenly changed the subject, forcing his thoughts away from his lost friends. "Which __ones the others wore?"_

_This was not one of the topics he had earlier agreed to discuss with the werewolf. This was one topic he strictly refused to speak about, for it would give too much away, not only about himself, but more importantly, his friends._

"_That is not a current concern." His reply was polite but evasive, and Lupin had the feeling __that his true words were more of ' it is not __**your **__concern'._

_Lupin fidgeted slightly, looking to pry perhaps just a little more information. "But-"_

_Kurama cut him off, raising a h__and. He would not debate this topic. "No summons has ever been completed. The messengers' identities are, as of the moment, unimportant. What I came to discuss with you is not our summons, but my secret."_

_The werewolf could only nod. He understood the reasons for his hesitation in discussing too much, and so let it drop for now. Perhaps he could gain more of the demon's trust in time and get something out of him later. "Do you still plan to attend Hogwarts?"_

"_I didn't plan to do so to begin with," the fox replied with a small grin. Lupin could only give a sheepish one in return –__ of course he hadn't planned any of this, it had all been chosen for him. "My companions and I cannot escape this country, Mr. Lupin. We have thought through all our options, and even if we attempted half of them, your ministry would catch up with us before we could become untraceable."_

_The news – particularly that last word – set something off in Lupin's thoughts. "Are all four of you demons?" he asked in shock, suddenly wondering if it was more than just the fox before him._

_Kurama let loose a small chuckle. T__hey were once more skirting topics he could not discuss. "That is not my secret to tell, but I will assure you that we are not all demonic." There was a pause in his words before he turned to Lupin, stopping their movement. "Are you uncomfortable with sending a demon to your school?"_

_The werewolf could only think of one answer, and so blurted it out without much thought. "Who wouldn't be?"_

_The demon gave a shrug and a little quirk of his lips: he could understand that. "I can give you my word and promise that no student will be harmed by __my hand or will."_

_Lupin frowned a little at this. He was surpri__sed that the demon would offer this type of promise, but he knew that, despite how he was getting over the stereotypes, demons could still lie as humans do. Deciding caution was a better approach, he returned, "And the others?"_

_There was a tired sigh in Kurama's repl__y, as he was obviously expecting such a question. "I…cannot promise for them, but I can take full responsibility for any student harmed by mine – or my colleagues – hands that was unnecessary, outside of self-defense, or by our wills."_

_The werewolf gav__e a soft sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a small headache beginning to form – he would have to ask Snape for something to get rid of it. "I…want to trust you, Kurama, but just your word-"_

"_Means little, I know. Very well," the fox replied as he raised a hand to his hair. Lupin frowned curiously, wo__ndering what he was doing. The wolf within him bit out at his idiocy and told him to defend himself immediately._

_Ten__sing at the sudden threat, Lupin's hand once more dug into his pocket just as Kurama lowered his hand with a flick of his crimson hair. He showed Lupin the blade of grass he held within his hand. "I give you my word, bound by blood pact."_

_In any other situation, the near tripling size of Lupin's amber eyes would have made Kurama laugh. Indeed, a blood pact was rare even in the demon realm. It was probably unheard of and never seen by any human or wizard in a millennia, at least. _

_In fact, he was surprised the werewolf even knew what it was._

_The fox brought the blade of grass__, as it sharpened into the edge of a tiny blade, to his finger. Pushing down, he watched the blood well up on the tip of his skin. Holding up his hand, he turned it over and watched as the crimson life force slowly fell from his flesh._

_Halfway through its fall towards his second hand which had been __held out as if to catch it, the drop slowed and froze in midair. It began to twist and mutate as swirls of black fog wrapped around it, concealing it from view. With a push of air that burst around them and send the strange darkness pushing out in all directions to thin and finally disappear, a roll of parchment sat, hovering between Kurama's outstretched hands. _

"_A blood pact," Kurama repeated, "will bind me to my promise." He held it out to the werewolf, __his hand still wrapped tightly around the scroll. "Read it carefully. I wish you to know my intentions and my complete sincerity in this matter."_

_Lupin took the scroll with almost shaking hands. As a previous tea__cher of the dark arts, it was no secret that he enjoyed the subject immensely._

_And this was as dark as you got._

_A blood pact could only be summoned by the blood of a demon, so few wizards had ever seen such a thing. And it was said it would induce a most horrifying death if the contract within was ever broken, so even fewer would ever submit to the binding of one._

_As he unrolled it, looking at the elegant__ script written out in glistening red blood, Lupin glanced through the words of the contract. It was thorough, guaranteeing that no one at Hogwarts would be harmed unless in self-defense or against Kurama's or his companion's wills. _

_Which would mean Kurama wouldn't suffer a horrible death should he be forced to harm anyone under the influence of the Imperius Curse, or any other such magical influence._

"_This…" Lupin suddenly felt rather guilty in making this demon, who truly seemed to have only the best intentions, commit to such a dangerous promise. "This isn't really necces-"_

"_But it is." Kurama shook his head. "I have__ no dilemma in giving you my word in this contract. Besides, I can tell that you have never seen a blood pact."_

_A blush spread over Lupin's cheeks at that knowing smile on the fox's lips and he rolled up the scroll once more. "Wizards can't summon them," he confessed. "It is…an ancient magic we believed only demons could perform so, in some ways, it was lost to us."_

"_It takes demonic blood, yes," the fox replied, rather enjoying the conversation. It was like watching a child at Christmas – Lupin truly wanted to know more about the d__emon ways. "I will explain our ways to you, in full, if we are granted the time."_

_He couldn't suppress his light laugh as the werewolf's eyes lit up in excitement. "You are interested in the dark arts?" he asked curiously as they resumed their walk through the bleary streets._

"_I'm interested in all Magical arts," he shot back, wanting to make it clear that it was not just the darkness that intrigued him but the art of learning anything new and unknown. "Would you teach__ me of your kind then? Of demons?"_

_The sudden possibility of friendship offered to him through a subject both would enjoy discussing intrigued Kurama. It was dangerous, he knew, to be discussing such a subject, but nothing in his mind nor instincts was warning him to be cautious of the werewolf._

_And his demonic self longed for the company of another scholar._

"_All but the secrets that are not yours to know," he finally consented with a small smile reserved for himself more than the man before him. "I would not presume to say that we trust one another yet, but I believe a certain friendship might be earned." He looked to Kurama with a soft, almost longing look. "I wish only to go home…but to do so I may need another's help."_

_Lupin glanced to him, which turned into more of a stare as he analyzed the demon before him. With such an expression, he suddenly saw not a__n old, wise demonic creature but a young and frightened teenager in an unfamiliar place._

_After a long pause, he continued, "A mutual exchange of information, then?"_

_Kurama paused for a moment before glancing almost shyly over. "I had preferred the term friends."_

"_Friend__s require trust."_

"_Touché__. You are far too intelligent for you own good, Mr. Lupin." The fox stared at the moving clouds high above them as he tucked the bloodied grass blade back into his hair. "I have a slight problem with such a deal, however."_

_Lupin glanced over. He had feared this was too good to be true. "And that would be?"_

"_I…may need more than information. It will be nothing dangerous, for it would be unfair of me to put you at risk to get my needs," Kurama said softly, his voice willing the werewolf to understand his words. "If it comes to actually escaping, I might need a little help. I am, of course, willing to offer something in exchange for this. Something more than mere information."_

_Interest piqu__ed and wondering just what else the demon could offer, Lupin cautiously probed. He wouldn't put his own friends nor order at risk, but if it was of no harm to them, he wasn't so sure it would be a bad thing to get the demon and his friends out of England. They were probably putting Hogwarts at a terrible risk as it was. "What such bargaining chip, then?"_

_The demon stopped walking and Lupin turned, now a few feet ahead of him on the path, to stare into his green eyes. "I have contacts in the Spirit World."_

_Lupin__'s heart froze, fearing to beat again for__ the pain that false hope might inflict upon him. __"__Wh-what? What do you mean?__"_

_Kurama gave a soft smile, trying to ease the obvious pain found in his companion's eyes. "I have contacts in the World of the Dead, and I will do what I can to search f__or the one you have lost. I cannot promise anything more than a chance to say goodbye properly."_

_He couldn't feel the world around him as he stared at the fox demon, his last chance to see Sirius. The wolf within him, however, was disgusted with such emotions and forced himself to think clearly, despite the pain in his heart. "H-how do you know I've lost anyone?"_

"_I have seen that look before – I have…experienced it before. You merely wish to say goodbye because you were robbed of the option at the time of your friend's death….the lack of closu__re can rot within you, Mr. Lupin. I would not wish that pain on any other." _

_Lupin couldn't believe how accurate Kurama's description was and he had to resist the hand that ached to grab his burning chest. "I will find him for you, and at least give you the right to say farewell."_

"_You can do that?"_

"_I can try," Kurama replied. "And I will give you my word that I will try as hard as I can to find your lost companion. In return, I would ask for__ your help in keeping quiet with the order…Especially that Dumbledore of yours. Fooling him is mentally exhausting."_

_The sudden humor in the fox's words brought a short laugh to Lupin's lips and he nodded. "I truly know what you mean. When I attended the school, however, he did keep my secret safe and did all he could for me…he has no prejudice against demons, Kurama…He could help you more than I, you know."_

_The fox gave a nod that suggested he had thought of such things already. Was there anything Kurama hadn't gone over before this conversation?_

"_Thank you for your advice," he began, shaking Lupin from his thoughts. "I will take it into consider__ation but I cannot play my cards too quickly, nor can I do so without the consent of my companions. I am responsible for their lives…I must be sure before I make such a bold move."_

_The werewolf nodded, underst__anding such logic. He briefly wondered what his school years would have been like if James and Sirius had thought things through as much as this boy did. Such a thought only brought more pain to him and he quickly banished the subject from his mind._

_Better__ not to think of them at all than to live with constant pain._

"_I understand," Lupin replied as he lifted the scroll up, remembering that he still had to sign it…though he wasn't sure how. "Do I have to…"_

_He gestured to Kurama's hair, where the grass blade had been hidden once more. However, the fox demon merely laughed in reply and shook his head. "No," his amused voice replied as he dug into his pocket for something. "You need only sign."_

_Pulling out a pen, he held it out to Lupin, who took it with a sort of grin. "Quite a muggle – not to mention very human – tool for a demon."_

"_Half demon, remember?" he offered__ in reply, watching Lupin sign his name at the bottom of the blood pact. "I was in Japan, actually, and had the pen in my pocket when we were summoned. It is easier than carrying quill and ink around."_

"_I have to agree with that," Lupin said as he looked down at his signature with a frown. "Doesn't write very elegantly however." Pushing the cap back on the pen he handed it to Kurama, who tucked it back into his pocket. "That reminds me, however…You aren't suffering from a memory spell, are you?"_

_The fox demon gave a sheepish grin. "Not quite."_

_Lupin merely nodded and held out the contract, but Kurama shook his head. "No, you keep it,__" he replied. "If you give it back, I could destroy it without your knowledge."_

_At the werewolf's nervous glance at the document and then the fox, Kurama tried to rephrase his statement.__ "I wouldn't do that, Mr. Lupin, but it is a demonic pact and demons are very suspicious. It is merely the rules of the contract – you keep it."_

_Lupin swallowed slightly and pocketed the scroll. "Very well…was there anything else we needed to discuss?"_

_Kurama smiled gently but shook his head. "That was all…I will need to know details about your friend and their death…but that can __wait for another time. Perhaps one in which you can bring up your curiosity about demons."_

_Lupin's eyes went from a glazed sorrow to a lighted excitement, and Kurama almost felt bad__ly for forcing so many different emotions to cross those beautiful amber eyes. _

"_Very well," the werewolf finally settled on a calm, and almost emotionless face. "We should head back then, the Order will begin to worry. _

_Kurama nodded__, and they turned back, heading back to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place to face once more the rest of the wizarding world. But at least, in some weird pairing of companionship, the two had a little more hope in their lonely worlds._

_-o-o-o-_

Lupin turned away from the two demons as Hiei released Kurama from the hold that pressed him into the bookshelf.

Kurama was willing to die for the diminutive being, and yet he was treated in such a harsh way. The werewolf couldn't decide whether he felt sorry for the fox demon or if, perhaps, Kurama knew what he was doing.

He had to practically drag Hermione away from them, helping her pick her jaw up off the floor and continue. They had enough books, they should probably find the others.

His thoughts once more wandered to Sirius and he glanced behind him to Kurama, who was now smiling and seemingly conversing in silent conversation with his hot-tempered companion.

Could the fox really give him relief from his only regret?

Could the demon bring him to Sirius one last time?

Lupin sighed and released Hermione, emerging from the shelves and shelves of books to the crowded central foyer of the store. He stopped at what he saw, aggravation and annoyance flickering over his eyes at the small group standing out among the crowd.

A snobbish voice caused most of these emotions to flicker over his eyes as he looked to the boy that was close enough to being his very godson.

"What's with the new mudbloods, Potter?"

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 6_

End

-o-o-o-

Boy, that took a lot out of me!

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed. I'm far too tired to Author notes!

If you have any complaints, blame the beta! ;) I love you, KyoHana!


	8. Pricks, Tricks, and Sticks

**Disclaimer: **

**Language Key:**

I have decided not to include a language key in this story. I will write any change in language usage in context clues. Italics and and "" and ~ just get too confusing for the readers. I know I hate having to scroll back up to the top of a story to find out who's talking in what language. So I will use context clues and you will know what language is being spoken because I will say so.

If there's any confusion after that, please let me know.

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 7_

Pricks, Tricks, and Sticks

-o-o-o-

Yusuke and Kuwabara were not _happy_. They didn't _want_ to be going to a school – magic or not. They didn't _want_ to be shopping for supplies for this school. They didn't _want_ to be in a crowded, stuffy bookstore.

And, damn it, they weren't _happy _about it.

Of course, seeing Kurama's eyes light up at the sheer number of books he had never read all available in one place gave them a bit of a respite. But even the laughter he and Kuwabara had for that brief moment was not enough to stop them from being _unhappy_.

However, a distraction soon arrived, taking their attention from the annoyance of crowds, chattering wizards, stupid shopping, and dumb lack of choices in the whole matter. And it came in the form of a blonde, pigheaded boy.

Yusuke was cracking his knuckles before the trouble even started.

"What's with the new mudbloods, Potter?"

Oh yeah, this was definitely going to work out some of that _unhappiness_.

Harry, the two Tantei noticed with certain appraisal, turned towards the blonde with icy green eyes almost worthy of Kurama's.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Ron flanked one side of his friend as he spoke, his words cold.

"Oh, I was just curious," he began snidely, his British accent only adding to the snobbish tones. "Have you started up that little club of yours? DA was it? What does that stand for: Dumbass Association?"

"'Dumb Ass' is two words, moron," Hermione injected and Yusuke and Kuwabara turned to see her standing beside one of the shelves, her hand buried within the pocket her wand was surely in. The two Tantei shared a smirk. They could almost hear Kurama's voice instead of hers though neither was sure they'd ever heard the fox swear.

Malfoy's mouth turned into a straight line and his jaw clenched as he looked the frizzy-haired girl up and down in disgust. "I see your standards are still pathetically low if you're smartest member is a filthy mudblood!"

"Hey, what's that word mean?" Kuwabara interjected, more to Yusuke than anyone else. He received a shrug from his friend while the others ignored him. Ron was too busy trying to get to Malfoy, while Harry was too busy holding him back.

It looked like a routine rehearsed often for the three Hogwarts students.

"Yeah, Malfoy," Harry replied as he kept his friend from tackling the blonde. "We would have invited you to join but you didn't even meet our 'low standards.'"

And that was, apparently, the invitation to duel in the wizarding world, for both boys had their wands out in seconds, aimed at one another with curses on their lips.

Yusuke decided it was time for a little stress relief, as did Kuwabara apparently, because both of them stepped directly in between the two boys.

Ron glanced at Hermione as both boys raised their right hands. The shorter, darker-haired of the two clenched his fist, as if promising to use it. Harry blinked – was his hand shimmering blue?

Kuwabara, on the other hand, did something far stranger. He clenched his fist but not completely. It was as if he was clenching a pencil or wand (incorrectly so in either case) but there was nothing there.

Perhaps he had an invisible weapon? Hermione didn't recall him drawing anything out of his pockets, but she wasn't fully watching him, either.

And like Urameshi, his hand seemed to shimmer vaguely as well, though it was a light tinted yellow-orange in color (if it was even there at all and not an illusion of the lighting.)

"Hey, blondie," Yusuke interrupted the trio's vague interpretations of his and Kuwabara's movements. "If you can't take insults, don't throw them first. You'll get your ass kicked that way."

Malfoy's gray eyes narrowed at the perfect English that flowed out of his mouth. No flaws in the language, no twitches in the tone, no improper words or accent or varying pronunciation. It sounded recorded – perfect – artificial.

A language charm.

"A foreigner?" the blonde spat out, looking at Yusuke in disdain. How dare he – a foreign mudblood (though Draco couldn't actually prove that…yet) – challenge a pureblood Slytherin! "You're almost as bad as the mudblood!"

Kuwabara glanced at Yusuke again. "Still don't know what that word means," he grumbled, shaking his head. "Must be some wizard word, or something."

And there was the proof Malfoy was looking for: Mudblood!

Yusuke didn't give him a chance to use his new found information, however, as he raised his fist and clenched it just a little tighter. That blue shimmer flashed again. "I don't need to know what it means to know you're insulting me, something I just advised against you 'bloody' idiot."

Kuwabara let out a gruff bark of laughter at the word Yusuke had picked up, mostly from Ron, and started to use as a mockery of the British (which was becoming his new favorite hobby). Personally, the trio didn't find it all that funny, but they supposed it might be humorous from their visitors' point of view.

The laughing teen raised his half-clenched fist to join his friend. "Back down, tough guy," Kuwabara added to Yusuke's already apparent command. "You don't want to mess with us!"

Draco raised his wand. Obviously fists and….er….oddly clenched half fists didn't scare him. And why should they? He was a wizard – he didn't need anything more than his wand to protect him from any threat.

"As if a foreigner could do anything to a pureblood Slytherin!" he replied savagely, a smirk on his face as he raised his wand.

Behind Yusuke, Harry did the same, though he wasn't sure how he was going to hit Malfoy with the two teens standing in the way like that. Hermione and Ron both did the same, drawing their wands.

Yusuke's hand was now emitting a steady blue glow and Kuwabara seemed to be holding onto a flickering light, occasionally streaking up out of his hand as if tracing a long object (it was almost as though light was glinting off of an invisible blade. It reminded Harry of how the light in the sewers all those years ago had reflected off of Godrick's sword.)

"Yusuke, please release your spirit charge."

Silence seemed to fall directly within the group and all of them stopped at the soft tones of Kurama, who had stepped out of the bookshelves. He stood beside Hermione and Lupin, the latter of whom had a hand on the frizzy-haired girl's shoulder and looked ready to step in himself.

Kurama turned his green eyes on Yusuke, completely ignoring the blonde wizard. "You are in a library, after all, and I would be most unhappy if you damaged any of these books."

Yusuke immediately dropped his fist, the shimmer gone. Harry blinked in surprise. It was like all the tension in the room suddenly disappeared. Had Yusuke been causing all of it?

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "Ah- sorry, Kurama. Guess I forgot where we were."

The fox merely gave a small smile and a shake of his head – all was forgiven.

Ron, still glaring harshly at Malfoy, put his wand away as his best mate and personal nemesis did the same (reluctantly – it didn't look like the blonde Slytherin wanted to put his wand away, but the crowds around them were starting to notice).

"Yeah," Kuwabara suddenly boasted as he dropped his arm (the orange light gone as well) and laughed at Yusuke. "Kurama would have murdered you!"

And, apparently, that was the invitation to a duel in the human-with-a-lot-of-magical-ability world, as Yusuke promptly _tackled_ Kuwabara to the ground. "You were charging your spirit sword too!"

Several people in the crowd screamed out as the two boys went down, the darker-haired punching the daylights out of the taller. Harry moved to pull them apart, angry at Malfoy's smug appearance at the commotion, but he was beaten by a small fire demon.

Yusuke and Kuwabara suddenly found themselves five feet apart from one another, the front of their shirts smoldering a bit.

"You two are idiots," Hiei hissed out from between them, his arms spread wide from having shoved the teens.

Kurama tried not to show the pain of the fire demon's actions, but could not help covering his eyes with his hand, trying to stop the headache he knew would be coming soon.

Hiei had just used his speed to step into the middle of a fight between Yusuke and Kuwabara. Sure, he stopped the disagreement from spreading until the entire store found out what was going on, but he had just displayed what would look like apparation in front of not only several wizards, but one very intelligent witch.

"Kuwabara, Yusuke," Kurama said sharply before Hermione could even open her mouth (or Draco for that matter, who was definitely staring at Hiei in more than just suspicion). "Please maintain your civility until we are outside the shop, at the very least?"

Kuwabara barely managed to stop from yelling at the shrimp but merely nodded his head. "Yeah, yeah, alright, Kurama."

The fox, however, would not always be able to stop Hermione from talking. "You- You can apparate?"

Hiei turned to stare at her after a moment, realizing she was, in fact, talking to him. "What are you muttering, woman?" he growled out, much to Ron's anger (Hermione must be the dumbest smart person alive not to notice how defensive he is of her!)

Kurama tried not to groan – the headache was definitely on its way. :_That would be the wizards' ability to teleport. You're supposedly too young to know how.:_

Hiei easily heard the telepathic message and let his eyelids drop to an obvious expression of boredom. He gave a single-shoulder shrug. "Learned young."

The fox avoided the glance Lupin was giving him as Draco gave a snort. "That's impossible! You can't be more than ten years old!"

The fire demon's expression definitely was not bored anymore. He looked ready to kill.

If the blonde was nervous, he did well not to show it. "No one can learn that young!" he continued, definitely digging himself a deeper grave. Now Hiei would interpret his words as not only insulting but also a challenge. "Not to mention it's against wizarding laws!"

"Like laws ever stopped me," Hiei growled out. At least that one seemed to take Malfoy by surprise. However, it also gave Kurama one more thing to add to his headache.

"What he means," Yusuke interjected, ignoring the surprised green eyes of the kitsune. Yeah, so he wasn't the smartest person in the world but even a blind squirrel can occasionally find a nut! He continued, barely managing to keep the smirk off his face, "is our laws are different. We learned under different rules."

Kurama gave a small smile – not a bad explanation at all. Way to go, Yusuke.

Malfoy looked ready to sneer out another response when a gentle hand came down on his shoulder. He glanced up into the tired eyes of his mother; his face softened somewhat and he slowly relaxed.

"Come, Draco, we have more shopping to do." That was all she said as she turned and walked out of the crowds, which seemed to move out of her way.

Draco turned back to glare at the others, daring them to say anything but no one did. It was pretty obvious that his mother was not doing as well as she had been when they'd seen her at the Quidditch World Cup two years ago.

Apparently, Lucius's imprisonment was not doing her any great service.

"See you at school, _Potter_." The blonde turned and left the bookstore behind his mother, reaching out his arm to grab Narcissa's elbow and escort her out of the store.

"Bloody git," Ron mumbled, turning back to Harry.

Kurama watched Malfoy's retreat coolly, both he and the fire demon observing every move and storing it for later information. Lupin turned to Kurama and looked ready to speak but stopped at the almost imperceptible shake of the kitsune's head.

'Not now,' he mouthed as he turned to the werewolf. "Shall we head out, Lupin-san?"

Lupin composed himself and gave a nod as Moody came up, pushing himself through the crowds. "There's no sign of trouble," he muttered to his smaller auror companion.

"No trouble my ass," Kuwabara muttered from beside Yusuke as the others moved closer to them, the crowd thickening. Mr. Weasley stumbled from the masses, holding several bags filled with the school regulated books, including those he had gotten from Kurama (which took up two bags in their own right).

Yusuke just shook his head, a bit frustrated with the lack of "punching-the-hell-out-of-the-snobby-British-boy" that was supposed to be his stress reliever for the day. "Let's just get out of here."

Hermione, who, to be frank, was still staring at Hiei with narrowed eyes, looked to the others. "We'll head over to robes then?"

Her comment was met with several consecutive moans.

-o-o-o-

"Ow! Ow! Ow-ow- gods damn it, woman! Watch where you're putting those needles!"

They had been in Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions clothing shop and, needless to say, Yusuke and Kuwabara were having more _happy_ times.

"If you weren't moving around so much, I wouldn't catch you with the pins, sir!" Madame Malkin replied tersely. She was used to wizards standing still and taking no more than twenty minutes – and that was at the extreme.

This boy had been on the pedestal for more than half an hour.

Said boy let out a growl and a puff of air that pushed his gel-free (as he still couldn't find the wizarding equivalent to hair gel) bangs up. Kurama laughed gently to the side, where the others were waiting.

The others, of course, included the golden trio and Mr. Weasley. Lupin stood near the door, his arms clasped in front of him, looking quite out of the conversation and situation entirely. Moody was somewhere outside the shop, obviously keeping guard.

Kuwabara came out from the back end of the shop, his robes now slung over his arms. "These things are expensive!"

"Indeed," Kurama replied, holding a bag that contained his own robes. "Are you sure it is alright that we are buying all of this?"

Mr. Weasely, to whom the question was directed, nodded excitedly. He, of all the Order, was the only one truly as excited about the mysterious boys as Hermione was. "Of course! Dumbledore has decided to take all of you into his protection. He will worry about the costs."

Kurama gave a charming smile, something he always prided himself on. This one was his smile for parents, teachers, and other figures of authority. It tended to trick them into trusting him rather easily.

Mr. Weasley had already been duped by his own excitement, let alone the unneeded reinforcement of a well-placed smile.

"It is very generous of him," Kurama said as he glanced at Hiei, who looked like he was contemplating lighting his own robes on fire.

"Yeah," Yusuke continued with mock sincerity, "and a major pain in the- Ow! That was my side, lady!"

Madam Malkin merely gave an exasperated sigh.

Moody suddenly entered the shop from God knows where. Lupin glanced to him even as the bulky auror leaned over and whispered something quietly into the werewolf's ear. Kurama failed to catch it and glanced at Hiei, who was staring at them as well.

Lupin merely nodded and looked to Arthur. He gave a nod, which was returned by the redheaded man, before both Aurors walked out of the shop.

"Where are they going?" Ron asked. He had kept quiet up till that moment, still rather annoyed with the incident at Flourish and Blotts.

"Nowhere you should worry about," Mr. Weasley dismissed quickly, waving his hand flippantly at his son. He didn't miss the glance shared between Hogwart's three most troublesome students, but he chose to ignore it.

Mrs. Weasley was already planning this year's "Stay out of trouble" lecture for Platform Nine and Three Quarters, so he would let the current looks slide.

Yusuke tromped over to them several minutes later, interrupting the trio's whispers, holding his new robes. "These things are like dresses." He briefly glanced at Kurama and grinned. "They're not going to help your reputation much, you know."

The amusement in the fox's green eyes seemed to wither as he glared at Yusuke in a more friendly than angry manner. "Very funny, Yusuke."

"Er…what does he mean, 'reputation'?" Harry asked, glancing between the two. Yusuke merely smirked.

"Kurama's mistaken for a girl by _everyone_." Kuwabara was obviously trying not to laugh at the detective's words, and even Hiei seemed amused. Ron elbowed Hermione gently in the arm, eyes clearly saying "_See, I'm not the only one!_"

The fox looked ready to argue when Arthur clapped his hands. "Alright, on to wands!"

Kurama had to stop himself from groaning with Yusuke and Kuwabara. _What the** hell**_ was he going do to about their wands? The minute Yusuke, Hiei, or himself tried out a wand, their demonic origins were going to become quite apparent.

'_Shit shit shit shit!'_

'_-Out of ideas, little one?-' _Kurama had to hold back the growl that caught in his throat. Youko was in one of his moods.

'_If you've nothing to contribute to the solution, than stay out of the problem,' _he replied tersely. In all honesty, Youko had barely spoken a word to him since the entire event had started.

It was no secret that demons hated wizards.

'_-Talk to your little werewolf, then_-' His scathing reply was yet another reason why he had hardly spoken a word to his human half. He was less than happy that Shuichi had signed the blood pact.

He had been fully supportive of talking to the werewolf, interested in the take of a demonic wizard, no matter how diluted his blood was. Not to mention, he did have a certain amount of interest in keeping all four of them alive and out of harm's way.

However, he had _NOT _suggested a pact – he had tried to take over their body, which would have meant a transformation in front of a wizard, to stop his human counterpart from summoning the pact, but Shuichi had managed to hold him at bay.

And he was fucking pissed about it.

Kurama gave a soft sigh. He really didn't want to have this argument again. _'Look, it's over with – already done. I'm not sorry I did it, but I am sorry I went behind your back. So please get over it and help me.'_

Youko gave a long silence before he finally responded in softer tones, _'-Talk to the werewolf. Tell him what will happen if you test out wands. See if he has any ideas.-_'

Hiei glanced over at the fox as he gave a nod to no one and realized he was talking to his inner fox demon. He kept a small eye on Kurama as they walked towards Olivander's Wand Shop. The kitsune was now looking around as if in search of something.

He was actually looking for a distraction, and Kuwabara was kind enough to present one for him.

"Oh, look at the kitties!" Several eyes turned to the teenager who, before that moment, had appeared to take much pride in his manly reputation. Kuwabara was pressed against the glass windows of the pet shop, practically drooling over the small cats within.

Kurama glanced up at the slowly fading sign above the shop and then to the multiple cages inside. There were pets in cages that lined the walls from floor to ceiling, as well as many running around. Everything from owls to dogs resided in the shop, several of the tamer birds sitting on perches outside the entrance to the store.

"Kurama, can't I get a kitty?" Kuwabara's obnoxiously obsessed voice whined out. If he wasn't a nineteen year-old boy who was used to fighting demons and spirits and evil humans, the fox might have given an amused laugh.

"As long as you pay Lord Dumbledore-" Kurama paused – that really didn't work well with the translation charm – "As long as you pay Professor Dumbledore back" – much better translation – "I don't see any problem with it."

"Cats are allowed at the school, aren't they?" he asked, turning to Hermione. She had been telling him of all the things at Hogwarts, including pets.

She nodded. "Cats, owls, and toads are the permitted pets," she replied, as if reciting it straight out of a book.

Kurama turned to Kuwabara and gave him a small shrug, which he easily interpreted as "run into the shop and try to buy every cat they have." It was the perfect distraction for which the fox had been searching.

Now he just had to pray that Lupin got back before Kuwabara managed to select a cat.

"Look at that one! Urameshi, look!"

"I'm not going to look at every stupid cat you point out, you idiot!"

"Aw, this one's so cute!"

Ron, Hermione, and Harry stared at the two best friends as one dragged the other around the shop. The redheaded of the three students looked like he was trying not to laugh as he leaned over to whisper, "Is he serious?"

Harry could only shrug as a smirk graced his features.

Hermione watched their scarred friend carefully, almost unable to hide the smile herself. Despite rescuing the troubled teen from his less than friendly relatives' house early, Harry had hardly smiled all summer.

Not that she could really blame him. He still heavily blamed himself for his godfather's death and being inside 12 Grimmauld Place did nothing to help alleviate that pain. At least the change in pace brought about by their four visitors seemed to give Harry something else to focus on.

"Oooh, what about this one! She looks just like Eikichi!" Kuwabara was raving still, only this time he was sticking his finger playfully into a cage where a calico kitten sat on his hind quarters, swiping at the intruding digit.

"Yeah, Kuwabara, whatever," Yusuke replied with a yawn, glancing around at all the creatures that would not shut up. Despite the restriction on just the three types of animals allowed at the school, there were hundreds of different species in the shop and all of them were very loudly squawking or squeaking or squealing or making some form of racket (not to mention they left quite a smell which permeated the entire store).

The detective scanned through the cages, from rabbits to birds to felines and canines (some of which were not staying just one color – some of which were not staying just one _species_ (why couldn't Puu shape shift, anyways?)) Yusuke bent down to stare at a black mass curled into the very back of one of the ground cages. It glanced up at him, showing nothing but yellow slits – no white nor pupil in the eye, just complete yellow that faintly glowed.

Yusuke blinked for a moment and pressed himself closer to get a better look. That wasn't possible – surely that couldn't be –

"We call that one Black," a voice broke through his thoughts and he turned, a white knuckled grip on the cage, to the shopkeeper.

"Yeah?" Yusuke asked, trying to keep the strain out of his voice. "What is it?"

The shopkeeper frowned a bit, crossing her arms. "I don't rightly know. No one seems to be able to identify that fuzz ball from hell. Quite a troublemaker though." The keeper turned around, moving back towards the cashier's stand, still mumbling, "Bloody nuisance that thing is."

Yusuke looked back at it and reached his fingers in through the cage cautiously. The thing looked up and uncurled, revealing four legs and a pair of huge ears that overwhelmed the small head. It hissed at him, showing a mouth amidst the blackness, filled to the brim with pointed, razor-sharp teeth. The detective narrowed his eyes, clearly stating with his expression that he was unimpressed.

Those two fingers lit at the tips, shining blue with his energy, and the thing suddenly silenced, curling back up in the cage so it was once more a fuzz ball with slits of yellow.

Yusuke pulled his hands away and stood up. "Damn meddling wizards," he hissed out under his breath and moved over to Kuwabara. He glanced back at the cage and then outside to Kurama.

He left his friend still cooing over the damn cats and walked past the trio. "K'rama, can I talk to you?"

The fox looked up from his quiet conversation with Hiei and smiled gently at Yusuke. "Of course, what is it?"

Yusuke glanced to Mr. Weasely, who was rocking on his feet by the entrance to the shop, occasionally checking a pocket-watch and glancing down Diagon Alley. "They have an animal in there-"

"Really, Detective?" Hiei interrupted with a raised eyebrow and smirk. "Inside a pet shop, I'd never expect such a thing."

The raven-haired man spared a glare for the fire demon before resuming his little tale. "It's a shadow demon."

That stopped both youkai before him immediately – both freezing and turning their eyes to him, now completely serious.

"That's impossible, Detective," Hiei reprimanded, angry at Yusuke for even joking about such a thing.

"Go see for yourself," Yusuke growled back, not liking the fact that his friend wasn't believing him. "It's a fucking shadow demon – though a small one."

"It's not that we don't believe you," Kurama replied, obviously seeing the cause of his friend's anger. "But you know as well as I that such a thing cannot be in this world – the Spirit World finished sealing them long ago within the Netherworld."

Yusuke gave a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets. "How would I know how it got there? Maybe it was here before they sealed it up."

"What does this have to do with anything?" Hiei growled out. "We don't care about some rogue shadow demon."

"Unless a wizard buys it…" Kurama said softly.

Hiei closed his eyes in irritation. "And figures out what it is."

"And then I don't think I need to say it," Yusuke began, crossing his arms, "but we'd be fucked."

Kurama sighed. "Even if it takes years for the thing to be bought by a wizard, it still puts the Spirit World at risk." The fox looked through the pet shop window. "Shadow demons can open portals, after all."

Hiei sat there, glaring at anything but his two companions, both of whom were staring at him now. He adamantly refused to look at Kurama, knowing those green eyes would be his undoing. The two, obviously working against him, glanced at one another before returning their eyes to him.

The fire demon gave it another minute before cursing loudly. "Fine! The next time those stupid wizards look the other way I'll come and get the damn thing."

Kurama smiled gently at him, even as Hiei continued to ignore him. His sulking didn't stop the fox from giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Thank you, Hiei. We'll only have to keep it until we can find a way to get it to Koenma."

"Hn." The fire demon turned away and Yusuke had to work extremely hard not to smirk at the pink he saw on those childish features.

"Arthur?" The three detectives turned at the gruff voice of Madeye Moody. He and Remus were walking towards them, the former holding a wooden box in his hands. As his eyes fell upon the three standing none too far from Mr. Weasley, the large, rather scarred man quietly tucked the box into his coat.

"What are you doing at the pet shop?" Lupin asked softly, glancing between Yusuke and his friends, and Arthur. "Were we not supposed to meet at Olivander's?"

Mr. Weasley gave a smile. "Kuwabara wanted a cat to take with him, so we thought we'd stop so he could get one."

Lupin glanced to Kurama (which Yusuke might have found odd were he watching, though Hiei found completely normal after his chat with the fox, and Moody found highly suspicious). "Of course, but we shouldn't delay too long."

"Of course not. Ah, here comes the boy now!" Arthur declared as Kuwabara came out of the shop, the calico kitten, pure white with its markings on its paws and forehead, curled in his arms.

"What are you going to name him, mate?" Ron was asking as they followed him out of the shop.

Kuwabara gave a deep frown, trying to think up a name. "I don't know…"

Yusuke snorted as they once more joined in a small group. "Maybe you should name it Yukina," he muttered in amusement, which turned into pain as he was met with a rather bony elbow in his side.

Kurama, keeping Hiei from doing any more than that, glanced at Kuwabara, praying he wouldn't start prancing about like a ballerina. Luckily, he just got his normal, swooning eyes and a light blush.

"Yuki!" he cried out suddenly, nuzzling the cat in his arms, who blinked at him almost owlishly. "She's white just like the snow and almost as cute as my Yukina!"

Kurama had to redirect his efforts to keep Hiei from killing Kuwabara, as he was previously only trying to keep him from maiming Yusuke.

Hermione glanced at his friends – Hadn't Kuwabara starting mentioning something like that just the other day? Only Yusuke had cut him off then.

"What's Yukina?" Ron asked, looking to Kuwabara. The man looked ready to start singing praises to her.

"She's-" Yusuke moved to stop him even as Kurama opened his mouth to cover for him.

"-my sister." Each Tantei froze and looked to Hiei, who stood there with crossed arms. If Kurama's and Yusuke's jaws weren't hitting the cobblestones, Kuwabara's was.

"You're…sister?" Harry asked as they walked towards Olivander's, the adults far enough ahead of them that they didn't appear to notice the conversation.

"Yes." Hiei's reply was curt and absolute, leaving no room for argument. :_Don't you say a word, Fox:_ His even sharper voice cut through Kurama's mind. :_We can use the connection between twins to get out of it_.:

Kurama had to cover his mouth with his hand to keep anything from showing on his face, and Yusuke's eyes were beginning to water as he kept a firm grip on Kuwabara's shoulder, muttering comforts to the teen: "He's just covering your ass, he's just covering your ass."

"You…shouldn't be able to remember your sister. At least, not under the parameters of the memory spell you indicated," Hermione accused gently, though everything was becoming far too suspicious for her liking.

The fox, thankful that Hiei was willing to help out now, gave an exasperated sigh. "Ms. Granger, as I've said before, we don't know what was cast on us – all we can tell you is what we do or do not remember. So Hiei remembers his twin sister and we remember because he's mentioned her. Maybe it's because of the psychic link twins are supposed to share."

Hermione stared at him challengingly, obviously not buying a word of it. But she did back off and drop the subject as they headed down the street. Kurama waited through several seconds of silence before calling ahead of them.

"Mr. Lupin!" he called out, taking a few quick steps forward so as to approach the adults escorting them through the crowds. The werewolf turned to him. "Might I have a word, please? I was wondering how they keep this place hidden from London...Hermione wasn't sure."

Remus glanced at his two companions before falling back a step to walk beside Kurama. The fox let the other children pass him, Hiei giving him a glance (which Hermione did as well) before walking by.

"I have a feeling this has little to do with this place's security, Kurama," Lupin began, dropping any formality the two shared while pretending to know nothing about one another.

The redhead gave an apologetic smile. "Hardly. I am concerned about receiving wands in front of Mr. Weasley and Mr. Moody."

Lupin glanced to him. "You think they'll reveal…"

"I am sure that they will," Kurama replied as he slowly started walking after the others. "And I don't think you want that to happen any more than I do."

It didn't take long for the werewolf to give consent and agreement. Discovery of the demons – especially in such a public place – could prove devastating to the wizarding community (not to mention the four teenagers trying only to protect themselves).

"Well then," Lupin started shakily, obviously not happy with the turn of events. "I'll find a way to get the others away from the shop but…"

Kurama glanced to him. "But, Mr. Lupin?"

The werewolf gave a tired sigh, rubbing his sore neck. "I know you're not going to agree, but this is my one condition for getting the others away."

The fox regarded him coolly without quite looking at him, continuing on their path towards the wand shop. "And this condition would be…?"

"I'll be staying in Olivander's with the four of you when you get your wands." Lupin could easily see how Kurama tensed, and was glad that he had already laid out this request as a condition.

It took several minutes of contemplation on Kurama's part (more like conversation with Youko) before he finally acquiesced – not happily, mind you. He was very much annoyed with this, but he understood why Lupin insisted on being there.

Not to mention Moody and Mr. Weasley were far more likely to leave the four alone in the wand shop if Lupin volunteered to stay with them.

And so he found himself walking towards the wand shop with two personalities angered and upset with the way events had progressed. He knew Hiei could feel the irritation radiating off of him, but he ignored the fire demon's looks.

And in return, the hiyoukai's looks intensified. Kurama _never_ ignored him…except for that one time right before they stole the Artifacts of Darkness.

Hiei sighed and wondered when exactly Kurama would start trusting the three of them to help him handle these types of situations.

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 7_

End

-o-o-o-

Okay, so the fourth part of Diagon Alley comes tomorrow. It'll be the last part and will also _probably_ take us all the way to the damn train station.

Sorry Diagon Alley took so long, but it is the longest, most detailed part of the story. From here on out, it's wands and then off to school, which will move a bit quicker.

**Author Notes**:

…_You don't want to mess with us… _Alright, now keeping diction in mind and the speaker (Kuwabara) that should have been written "_You don't __**wanna**__ mess with us!"_ However, as previously mentioned in that part of this chapter, the translation charms leave their speech sounding like stereo instructions. Not a lot of diction possibilities. It'll change as soon as they get actual translation devices, rather than just charms.

I went through the other chapters and I'm pretty sure that this is consistent through them. If I messed up…er…Writer's Blooper? Ehehe?

…_He was a wizard – he didn't need anything more than his wand to protect him from any threat…_ Oh, Malfoy will learn the hard way on this one, and he won't be the only one!

…_for Platform Nine and Three Quarters… _I would have written this out with numbers, but ff . net does not handle fractions very well – I've learned the hard way. So forgive the change in writing style (as Rowling originally wrote it out with the fraction included) but it'll have to stay like that for ff . net.

…"_Lord Dumbledore"…that really didn't work well with the translation charm…"Professor Dumbledore"…much better translation…_ The translation charm gives, as Malfoy realized, proper English. It translates whatever Kurama is saying directly into English word for word, rather than the words meaning.

**Example**: When Kurama says Dumbledore-_sama_, he means to say that he is honoring Dumbledore as a wise elder to which the term Lord could be applied in terms of honor. However, in English, it sounds like he is calling Dumbledore by noble or royal names, which is not what he means. When he changed his words so the translation charm said "Professor" he thought Dumbledore-_sensei_. The charm simply takes the direct words spoken in Japanese and translates them to English.

It's not a very smart charm, it can't take his meaning and translate it, which is what a translation device will do when they get them.

_Hiei calling Yukina his sister_: He was getting them out of Kuwabara slipping up (and Yusuke provoking it (yet again). This way, they now have an excuse for why anyone remembers Yukina. Not a very good one, I'll admit, but one none the less.

I'm making this as realistic as possible – it's not likely they'll be able to hold a steady cover anymore, since it's already under complete suspicion from more than one party. The probability of randomly showing up in the middle of England and trying to keep what you are a secret around three very inquisitive children and adult wizards constantly testing you – yeah…secret isn't gonna last very long.

_The Shadow Demon_: This is a bit of…well, I guess you could call it foreshadowing (see if you can figure out what I mean with that one!) I am always a bit annoyed when YYH/HP crossovers have the tentei go to school with these exotic, amazing pets that aren't even allowed within Hogwarts anyways.

But when I got to it, I couldn't resist either (now I see the reason all the writer's do it) So, I have a cover up for my little mistake: Hiei and Kurama are going to have to keep a Mekai demon (a very troublesome one, you'll soon find out) hidden until they can return him to the sealed Mekai. At least that way it coincides with Hogwarts rules, since no one is going to know they have it.

Just a bit of…added comical relief, I'll say. The Fuzzball will also double as a hint to where the story is going…I'll keep using him as a hint, too. So I hope it actually works and doesn't ruin the story.

**End Author Notes**

Thank you everyone for reading and please review!


	9. Pricks, Tricks, and Sticks Part II

**Disclaimer**: See first chapter for full disclaimer of lack of ownership.

**Character Note**: It has come to my attention that I don't use all characters equally in this story. Part of this was accidental, part of this was my bias due to favoritism, but a large part was due to plot development.

PLEASE, for those of you who have not read any of my other stories, I am obsessed with Plot Twists. My plots are detailed and will spinyou around as many times as I can make them.

Please keep in mind that while Kurama and Hiei are the main characters used in this story (due to them being my favorite characters) the use of them is not always for the above reasons. Characters used in certain situations are most often used to ACTUALLY FURTHER THE PLOT, not because I feel like randomly typing them at that time.

Thank you for this consideration.

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 8_

Pricks, Tricks, and Sticks Pt. II

-o-o-o-

Despite less than average grades in his classes and his bit of a deficiency in the area common sense, Yusuke Urameshi was no idiot. Indeed not... no he made up for his characteristic bluntness and strategic 'know nothing'-ness with the keen ability to observe and to 'read'... be it a person or a specific situation.

Yusuke Urameshi knew each of his teammates backwards and forwards (and had known them as such for almost as long as he had known them). He was quite aware of Kurama's love swoons for Hiei, the fire demon's refusal to acknowledge his own emotions, and (of course) Kuwabara's entire lifestyle, whether it ranged from his love for furry kittens or his slight obsession with the little umbrellas found so often in fruity drinks.

The point is Yusuke always knew when something was wrong with one of his tentei.

So when he caught sight of Kurama and Lupin quietly discussing things behind their little group, he knew something was wrong. The fox was often secretive. Yusuke was convinced that he didn't even scratch the surface when it came to everything Kurama kept hidden; but the leader of the Spirit Detectives could tell by the stiffness in the fox's movements and the beginnings of a frown on his teammate's face that Kurama was not happy.

And that only led him to the curious intent of finding out what the fox was talking about with their new wizarding companion.

"Hey, Hiei?" Yusuke asked quietly (who better to go to for questions about the fox than his wannabe lover?) The fire demon graced him with a glare but no answer, so he continued, knowing he had Hiei's attention. "What's Kurama talking about?"

"None of your business."

He'd been rather expecting that answer, and so changed tactics ever so slightly (and they said he wasn't a strategist!) "I know you're listening to them - you're always keeping an eye, or an ear, on Kurama."

That got him a glare of perhaps tripled intensity and a tight-lipped response. "What is that supposed to mean, Detective?"

"Nothing, nothing." Yusuke held back his smirk and replaced it with a careless shrug as he locked his hands leisurely behind his head. "I just mean you watch out for him. So, naturally, I figured you'd know what they were talking about."

Hiei stared at him out of the corner of his eye as they navigated through the crowds. It was obvious he was trying to defeat Yusuke's own plan to get information out of him. "I know what they're saying."

Yusuke raised an eyebrow for more information but the fire demon gave him nothing, and the brow dropped in annoyance.

Plan A: shot down. Back to the drawing board.

"Well, I'm just worried about him. He's acting a little wierd... has been ever since we got to this weird world," Yusuke mumbled the last part, adding his own displeasure at their location and general inability to escape said location. "Not to mention he's being more secretive than normal."

Hiei watched as Kurama walked by them, clearly agitated by whatever outcome his conversation had afforded him. The fire demon stared at the fox's back, expecting him to turn around and tell him (as he always did) that he was fine.

What a lie that would be!

However, to the hiyoukai's utter surprise (not to mention, extreme irritation), Kurama did not turn around and continued on, outright ignoring him.

And Yusuke's low whistle was almost enough to send him over the edge and indulge his craving to strangle the detective.

"Well, guess he doesn't want you to know either," Yusuke added (most helpfully) as he took advantage of the apparently turned tables. Hiei seethed beside him, and the more mischievious (translation: fanboyish) part of Yusuke's brain grinned at the fire demon's annoyance of being ignored by his best friend (translation: wannabe lover).

"If he's secretive, it's for a reason," Hiei bit out harshly. The only problem was that, even though Kurama was secretive, the hiyoukai could almost always pry those truths out of him.

He was hardly ever left out of the loop on _anything_ going on in the fox's mind. And being left out now, when he felt most willing to lend a hand, was totally unacceptable.

"So..." Yusuke drew the word out as he shoved his hands in his pockets, barely containing a grin at his own advantage. "Now that Kurama is sharing about as much information with you as he does with me... want to tell me what they were talking about?"

Hiei sent him a death glare (something he had received countless times during his acquaintance with the fire demon that he no longer flinched at the motion...not that he ever had from the start) for ignoring his previous words. "Hn. No."

"Aww," Yusuke whined, trying to approach the subject with his normal childishness. "Come on, Hiei-"

He was silenced by another glare of similar intensity. "You'll know soon enough," the fire demon amended through almost clenched teeth. He turned away from the detective, refusing to continue any conversation, but not yet at the point of "no-tolerance" that he would move away.

Yusuke found himself stuck with that answer and put on an annoyed pout. Sure, he'd gotten more out of the closeted little fire demon than he'd been expecting, but it still wasn't enough to tell him what the hell was going on.

He was perceptive: not a mind reader! Which made things all the more annoying, considering he was talking to one.

The detective glanced up at the sign of the shop they were clearly heading into and gave a weird look. "Olivander's Wands?" he asked, paraphrasing the contents of the shop's writings. "We're actually getting those sticks?"

Ignoring the joint complaints of Kuwabara and Yusuke, Lupin pulled them all to a stop outside the shop just as Mr. Weasley was about to open the door. He glanced from Moody to Arthur before clearing his throat gently. "Seeing how wands always take quite some time, I think we should split up and cover more ground before the shops begin to close."

Mr. Weasley's eyes lit up at the prospect of this new and efficient idea, and he gave an enthusiastic nod. "Great idea! I'll take the kids to go get this year's requirements for Potions."

"And we can grab the things they will need too," Hermione added amid Harry and Ron's groans at the mere mention of Potions which only invoked the image of a certain Potions master. The two boys had to admit, however, that the idea of not standing around as the four new 'students' chose their wands was rather appealing. Assuming it took as long as the average wizarding student, the four could be in there for more than forty minutes!

"An even better plan then," Arthur reconfirmed with a grin and a spark in his eye that only a Weasley could get. "We'll meet up at Fortescue's. Well, come along, children!"

And off they went down the street, the only one seeming to be disappointed at not getting to watch the upcoming wand fiasco being Hermione, who was torn by the consolation of new potions books that Flourish and Blotts might not have had (a rarety, but all the better when it came true).

Lupin glanced over at Moody, who had remained unmoving. The taller man was regarding him with his swiveling eye, clearly not so sure about the little split up and opting, instead, to go inside the wand shop with the werewolf and four foreigners.

"I can handle the boys alone, Alastor," Lupin commented softly. "Dumbledore wants us to guard them as well as Harry. You should go with Arthur and keep them safe."

The four tentei watched the auror's obvious discontent with this suggestion. Kurama stood among his teammates, silently willing Moody to go off and follow the young wizard charges.

That swiveling eye continued to look solely at the werewolf, who was holding up rather well under its scrutiny. Moody stood in silence, simply staring hard at Lupin for several long minutes before gruffly turning around and following after Mr. Weasley and the children.

Lupin and Kurama both caught the muffled, "Be careful, I don't trust the lot of them," with their sensitive ears.

The werewolf almost sagged with relief at pulling off his white lie, though he knew Moody was quite aware of the lack of truth. He was, however, touched by the rugged man's normally absent show of care. With a small smile, he turned to the four boys. "Well, we should get your wands now."

As they entered the musty shop, dim but for the light filtering in through dirty windows to illuminate the dusty air, Yusuke glanced to Hiei. "Is this what they were talking about? Ditching the others?"

The whisper wasn't loud enough to catch the attention of the rest of the group, but Hiei did reward him with a look that would have clearly translated as "Duh!" were he the human child he often appeared to be.

Lupin, ready to clear his throat once more and call out for the shop's owner, found he had no need as the tall, willowy man parted from the shadows of the many shelves. The tentei's attention immediately drew to the lanky man, who moved with the grace of one who is old and yet somehow still limber.

The aged owner stopped just shy of where they stood, lingering next to the high podium desk that served as the register's home. His wide eyes steadily took in the four boys before him, something within those silver orbs lighting in both curiosity and wariness.

"My, my," he began in a raspy voice, long fingers clutching the edge of the table. "What an interesting assortment of students Hogwarts will be hosting this year."

Yusuke glanced over at his other teammates to gage their reactions. Kurama (he could tell from the cold regard in his eyes) was surprised at Olivander's recognition (and it was indeed recognition he was speaking of, then). Kuwabara (as always) seemed unaware of the reference and Hiei (also as always) was as emotionless as ever.

Lupin, however, cleared his throat once again, though this one seemed more from discomfort. "Ah, Olivander, these boys need wands."

Those wide eyes, which seemed far too old even for that aged body, glanced over at him. "Unfortunately, I'm not sure how much assistance I'll be with that request...However, I'll do what I can," he stated, his wizened voice slow and steady. "You, young man," he began as he pointed a bony finger at Kuwabara, "what is your name?"

The orange-haired member of the detectives glanced at the others but Yusuke just gave a shrug: the clear go-ahead. "Kazuma Kuwabara."

"Well, we'll start with you, Mr. Kuwabara. If you'll step forward, please." Olivander motioned to just in front of where he was standing. As Kuwabara stepped up, the shopkeeper observed him once more, his gaze like a vulture memorizing each aspect of his next prey.

He circled Kuwabara once before scurrying off between the shelves, a sudden determination in his step. Yusuke had seen that sort of reaction before, but usually in fighters (of course...those were really the only kind of people Yusuke knew). It was the rise to a challenge, and the old man seemed quite ready to beat this one.

It was several minutes - minutes filled with muffled mumblings and the scuffing of feet both human and ladder alike - before the man returned, a box held almost preciously within his hands.

He slowly slid the lid up and off, tucking it away beneath the box with as much presentation as the unveiling of a prized artifact.

Within, on a dark blue cushion lining the inside, lay a wand positioned as if praised and loved with every aspect by its maker. Olivander held the box out, presenting a hero with his honored reward.

Kuwabara, completely wierded out by the love displayed for a stick, reached out and grabbed it, staring at the wand as if he expected it to suddenly do a back-flip before him. Glancing at Olivander dumbly, he waited...and waited some more.

"It doesn't perform on its own, young man," the wand maker chided. Honestly, how many times did he have to say it to every new customer? "You've got to give it a wave!"

Once more, the orange-haired teen regarded his stick as if it might do something completely unexpected. He glanced back at the others, who offered no support, before shrugging a little and waving the wand around.

It was as if he was once more holding the hilt of Suzaka's katana. His energy was pulled from his arm (albeit, just a small bit of his overall supply) and then jettisoned through the stick.

The outcome?

It flew from his hands with a flash of orange light and slammed into one of the shelves, where it stuck like an arrow in a tree.

Kuwabara stood, eyes open and mouth somewhere near the floor. The flying projectile of a wand was still humming with the force of impact. Innocent eyes turned to Olivander with a clear "I didn't do it!" expression in them.

The wander maker was standing with an odd expression on his face. It was something between amazement and amusement, and his facial features simply couldn't choose which expression to favor more.

"Well," he said with a light cough, "I don't think I've ever seen that happen before."

And then he as off, scurrying once more into the shadows to find another wand. Kuwabara looked helplessly at the others who gave him little support (well, Kurama gave him a nod of encouragement, which was rather canceled out by Lupin's look of absolute shock).

Off to the side, the werewolf was clearly beginning to understand why the redhead did not want the others to witness this. He also had the distinct impression that Olivander's shop was going to need serious remodeling afterwards.

The shopkeeper returned with another wand that he handed to Kuwabara, who once more gave it a wave (albeit a bit hesitantly this time). A shelf not too far away suddenly found itself exploding into several thousand smaller pieces (creating more fun with flying projectiles) and Kuwabara shoved the wand back into the old man's hand as quickly as possible.

"You idiot!" Hiei cursed as the others recovered from their ducked positions, all four nicely coated in a new layer of wood chips. "Less energy!"

"How was I supposed to know!" Kuwabara yelled back in irritation swiping his own hair free of dust and wood.

"Will both of you shut up!" Yusuke hissed, clearly trying to quiet them before they revealed anymore in front of Lupin or Olivander. He was stopped, however, by Kurama's hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine, Yusuke," the fox said softly. "Mr. Lupin is aware of our situation and it would appear that Mr. Olivander already knows full well what we are."

Yusuke regarded his smartest teammate with doubt for a moment before giving a tense shrug. "Alright, Fox-boy, whatever you say."

"And now you know what they were talking about," Hiei muttered low enough so that only Yusuke, standing beside him, heard him and sent a light glare his way.

Kuwabara tried out exactly seventeen wands before he found one that did not turn into a flying projectile, make things explode, or change Olivander into a cat (that oddly resembled Eikichi...and took Lupin fifteen minutes to reverse).

By the end of it, Kuwabara had a shiny new wand of River Birch wood, providing him with a cinnamon brown "stick" splotched with old knots long smoothed down. It was eleven and a quarter inches; a fine wand centered at the core with the strand of a Unicorn's tail - the world's most noble creature (and girliest, as Yusuke was quick to point out).

Olivander, far more restless than usual, turned to the others with a quick catch of breath. "Well then," he began, now caught between amusement and clear pain at the destruction of his shop (more than normal destruction, that is... way more than normal). "So much for the easy."

He glanced between the three remaining boys with a light frown on his face. There were several long moments of silence that floated between the attendants of the shop before he spoke slowly, "you must understand the predicament that I face in trying to supply you with wands." At the clear uncomprehension seen even in Lupin's eyes, he continued, "To put it simply, I cannot do so."

The one time professor of Hogwarts glanced to the three tentei in question, though only Kurama seemed to have the faintest idea what was going on, and even then it looked like he didn't comprehend fully either.

Olivander generously went on in his soft voice, taking it upon himself to explain as he regarded the three with weary, yet curious eyes. "According to Clause Three of the Code of Wand Use, no inhuman creature may use a wand, nor is it permitted to give a wand to such a creature."

Kurama had, indeed, not been aware of this law and Lupin had not prepared for the fact that Olivander might realize they were not human (not that he could actually recall this rule off the top of his head either. He actually had to pause to wonder if his own humanity ever came into question when he came to Olivander for a wand, and if Dumbledore had something to do with the fact that he got one without question). However, it caught the werewolf by surprise, more so, to suddenly have information about the boys available - information regarding their races.

Olivander's words meant that Kuwabara was fully human while the other three were not, at least not in full. And though it was clear now that the demonic outnumbered the human in this particular group of boys, it was still nice, finallly, to have some solid facts.

The fox was the first to speak, barely beating an annoyed Yusuke to the punch. "Sir, my friends and I understand the inconvenience this represents and apologize for the abruptness of the visit. However, Professor Dumbledore has asked us to stay at his school for a duration of time under the pretence that we are foreign wizards visiting for a more complete education."

Olivander watched Kurama speak with little expression change, simply observing with a light nod, before reaching up to scratch his chin gingerly. "Quite an eloquent speach. Doesn't very well solve our problem, however."

There was a long pause in which Kurama maintained the silvery eye contact with him before the wand maker once again spoke. "It has been... a very long time since I've had a demon in my shop - or seen one at all for that matter."

Kurama looked ready to speak once more, perhaps to defend himself and his friends, but Olivander held up a hand. Even though the fox was old and wise, he seemed somewhat dwarfed by this man, like an apprentice standing before a wizened master.

"You, sir, are perhaps the most interesting creature I have ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on," he continued slowly, not once looking away from the steady green eyes of Kurama.

Beside the fox, Hiei tensed and Yusuke (pushing back the laugh at the fire demon's emotions, once more) prepared for the possibility of this not going well.

Though Kurama was not the usual target of their group (what with Hiei battling for the strongest in Makai and Mukuro's eventual throne, and Yusuke being the leader as well as a demon lord), his teammates had learned long ago that beauty got you into trouble... _a lot_. And though he was not targeted for the strength he gave the team or even his brains, he was very often targeted for much worse reasons by worse people.

Not that Olivander really seemed the type.

The old shopkeeper was merely giving his appreciation at seeing a rarely seen sight (which could also be said for his getting to see three demons, two of which had strength he had never felt before) and expressed so as he turned to Yusuke, "And you are a demon that radiates nobility in your very magic...not unlike some wizards." His reply, which had trailed off into a dark tone, caused Yusuke to narrow his eyes lightly at the man before glancing to Lupin, who's own gaze had darkened considerably.

Before he could question, not that Yusuke was sure he wanted to or even what question he wanted to ask, Olivander continued, "Seeing how I take this as a request of the Headmaster-" At this point the wand maker glanced to Lupin, who gave a small nod. "-I will provide you with whatever services I am able, given one condition.

"In order to provide you with wands that will work for your... unique magic, I will have to ask for the necessities to make what hasn't been made in centuries." The riddle of his words passed over all but Kurama, who once more had a unique knowledge of the wizarding ways, and Hiei, who seemed to be completely ignoring everything.

"We are willing to supply such necessities." The fox's return reply, equally puzzling, seemed to go over their heads yet again and constitued a conversation for demon and wand maker alone.

Yusuke glanced uneasily at Kurama, who was still staring directly at Olivander. Hiei was flat out ignoring the man and contemplating how he was going to kill Kuwabara if he got any closer, as he seemed to be edging his way back into the group every time there was a pause in conversation.

"What necessities, Fox-boy?"

The fire demon, who seemed to be growing irritated and irate (not a good combination for the hiyoukai) answered before the fox had a chance to, hoping to get out of the shop as quickly as possible. "I imagine the two of you will need to supply blood and heritage markings."

"Markings?" Kuwabara asked, his voice an octave higher. "Like, Yusuke has to give him one of his tattoos?"

Hiei just sent a glare towards the orange-haired oaf, hoping the messsage of stupidity got through so he wouldn't have to waste his energy telling Kuwabara himself.

"Oh, but it gets more complicated than that," Olivander injected, ending the small fued between fire demon and human as all eyes turned back to him. "Wands pick their wizards-"

"Wands are made of different properties," Kurama interrupted, his tone of exasperation clearly stating he had heard this speach before and saw the repeat explanation as a waste of time and truth. "The wood varies, the style varies, the length and carving, and even what is placed at the core to give it a magical center.

"Wood, however, is often biased when held within a human's hand and mixed with magic - something wizards like to leave out of their speeches. It is more often than not picked by birthday rather than the wizard."

Yusuke frowned. "So...Kuwabara's wand is made out of wood that...had the same birthday as him?"

Hiei snorted, not even attempting to point out the stupidity of that, even with a glare.

"Perhaps I did not explain that well," Kurama added with a small frown. "Many types of wood have energy that is often paired to human energy most easily by birth date. In simple terms, it's like astrological signs, Yusuke. Your personality can often be categorized by what date you were born on and how the stars were aligned.

"Trees are not that different. They have energies that closely match the personalities of humans and other creatures," Kurama nodded to Olivander at this point in his speech. "Wizards use these energies to match wands to students. They've found that a pattern emerges through birthdays, and that personalities and woods are similar for wizards and witches with close birth dates. It's how Mr. Olivander can find one wand out of thousands to fit you."

"Mr. Kuwabara's wand is made of birch wood, which would suggest his birthday lies between December and January," Mr. Olivander cut back in, somewhat displeased at the interruption to his famous speech, no matter how many times he had rehearsed it before. The others ignored Kuwabara's surprise at the correct assumption as the shopkeeper's eyes once more turned to the fox. "You are very well informed abouft our world... for a demon."

Though it was said lightly, it contained the barest hints of suspicion, which all present picked up. Kurama merely gave a smile. "Demons are old, Mr. Olivander, and I have a good memory."

"So what's the big deal with the birthdays?" Yusuke asked with his normal brashness, successfully cutting some of the tension in the room. "I mean, mine would be... oh."

Kurama's smile turned to a rather wry form of the gesture. "Exactly Yusuke. 'Oh.' Therein lies the problem; you and I have multiple birthdays, and so it is likely no wand that Mr. Olivander has made will fit us because our two natures - possibly even three in your case - will war with the natures of the woods until the wand is destroyed."

"That sucks."

"To put it lightly, Yusuke," the redhead answered easily to his teammate's normal blunt reply. "Hiei, on the other hand, should be fine with a simple wood, though he may have to put something of his demonic heritage within its core so it reacts better to his touch, should the wizarding world not have something compatable to offer."

Olivander merely nodded. "Very well. Considering he appears to be the only full demon, we will start with him."

Hiei glanced back at Kurama and in the blink of an eye, a second which everyone else missed, he had his answer.

_'No, you're mixed blood should not affect the wand because it is mixed demonic blood.'_

The rest of the conversation, parts held mentally, parts held only between their eyes, concluded that Kurama had said nothing aloud out of respect for Hiei's secret. Kuwabara was present, as well as two human strangers that Hiei certainly did not want to reveal his heritage to anymore than was already being forced out.

The fire demon stepped forward and Olivander circled him as well before running off to face the newest challenge. Lupin, standing in the corner of the shop nearest the door, regarded the smallest member of the four boys carefully.

Like Kurama, perhaps even more so, he was definitely more than he appeared.

_'So,'_ he thought, staring at what looked so much like a young child, _'of all of them, he's the only full demon. That makes Kurama and Yusuke half demons, as Kurama confirmed himself earlier.'_

The werewolf had been listening quietly as the four and Olivander exchanged words, picking up everything he could, since Kurama had not told him much. He was glad that Moody and the others had gone, but he was much happier about the fox acquiesing to his demand to remain with them (though he did feel somewhat guilty about forcing it on the Japanese boy).

But this was information that someone needed to know in case this whole thing went awry.

Hiei took far less time than Kuwabara and caused considerably less damage, perhaps because he had more mastery of his energy - or just less patience for wasting time. It took him nine wands before they had determined length (eleven and three quarter inches (accompanied by the complaint from Kuwabara that Hiei's was longer)) and wood type (Black Cherry).

Surprisingly, they had even found a core that worked relatively well with the fire demon. Unsurprisngly, Dragon Heartstring turned out to be that core.

"It is a heartstring from the Asian Fire God, a fierce dragon found only in China and Mongolia," Olivander commented as he handed Hiei his wrapped wand. "If it begins to disagree with you or work improperly, rub it with a cloth soaked in your blood. The link to your demonic side should provide a more powerful connection."

While Kuwabara was turning green at the thought, Kurama was called next.

During these few seconds, as Lupin and Olivander turned trained eyes on the fox, a certain fire demon (new wand shoved into Kurama's pocket) disappeared from the shop with almost no notice.

It took the kitsune far longer than Kuwabara or Hiei, but Olivander was patient with the destruction rained upon his shop (though he was _not_ very happy with the destruction of several wands).

Twenty-six tests later, it was clear that both Rosewood and Willow took kindly to the fox's energy, the former reacting to his demonic side and the latter to his human. The preferred length seemed to be ten and a half inches and the core would have to be exactly as Olivander predicted.

"We'll have to make your wand," the old man said, revealing his earlier remark of what had not been made in centuries. "I will cross the two woods so that they will balance your demonic and human sides. If you are willing to supply blood for linking the wood and your core, I will send the wand under a blood-sealing spell. It will be ready by your first day of classes."

Kurama merely nodded. "I will supply the blood as well as a strand of hair from my true form for the core." He glanced back to Yusuke who gave him a completely clueless look. "Yusuke will supply both as well should it be needed."

Olivander seemed more than happy about this, obviously willing to go along with whatever the fox wanted if it meant he would get to see two demons in their true forms.

Kurama walked back over to his three friends (one of which had conveniently shown back up somewhere amid the wand destruction) and took his place next to Hiei, whose cloak was suspiciously wiggling and emitting glowing yellow eyes every once in a while.

The fox merely smiled as Hiei grumbled about claws and new holes in his clothing.

Yusuke was called next, being the last and what Olivander feared would be the hardest yet.

The first wand the man brought was eleven inches long and made of Holly. Yusuke, having heard the spiel given to Kuwabara, gave it a wave.

It exploded.

"Nope, definitely not!" Olivander, having barely dodged yet another flying projectile for the day, quickly returned to the shelves, tugging at his white and wispy hair in the first signs of frustration.

Four more wands bit the dust (quite literally) before Olivander emerged with one, twelve inches and made of Crusader Hawthorn wood. Yusuke, having grown rather fearful of these little stick wavings, closed his eyes in apprehension and gave his wrist a flick.

A warm sensation began to fill his entire being, starting at his arm where it began to tingle pleasantly. He opened one eye a crack to stare at the wand before opening both and taking in the glowing blue light that the entire length of wood seemed immersed in. The soft blue tones of his energy were humming around the end of his arm and tendrils were beginning to spread from its center in a peaceful and almost serene manner.

And _then_ the wand exploded.

-o-o-o-

Kuwabara flopped down on the bed two hours, several new bruises, one ice cream cone, a couple of new lies, and one fabulous floo trip later. Hiei took his usual spot on the window as Kurama closed the door and crossed over to him. Their leader sat down next to Kuwabara, puffing out air to blow his still gel-less bangs away from his forehead.

"I believe you can take our little friend out now, Hiei," Kurama began, crossing his arms slightly.

The fire demon, staunchly ignoring all of them (especially Yusuke's perverted little giggles and Kuwabara's confused sounds), reached into his cloak and pulled out a black furball with yellow slits narrowed at all of them. Kurama gently reached out and took the small shadow demon, whose shape was something akin to a cat, though far too skinny to be porportional to the human animal and with ears several times too large.

Hiei opened his mouth to warn the fox about the seemingly harmless thing with ferociously sharp claws that had wreaked havoc all over his body until he had finally shut the thing up with his Jagan Bands. However, before he could say a word, the creature curled around Kurama's arm like a homesick puppy and began... humming.

The damn thing was _purring_...though the sound more closely resembled wheezing.

Kurama stared down at it in surprise, having half expected a vicious response - shadow demons are intelligent, but mostly forgo whatever IQ they have for the better logic of simply killing and devouring anything with which the come into contact.

And he'd certainly never heard of one _purring_.

The fire demon narrowed his eyes at the thing before crossing his arms, muttering something along the lines of "Damn stupid thing favoring foxes."

Yusuke watched the two as well, noting that even Hiei had not expected such a turn of events. With a slight frown at the abnormal nature, he gave a shrug. "Well... what are we going to call it?"

"What?" Kurama asked, looking up from the small thing which was head-butting his chest as he pulled it closer, safer.

"Well," Yusuke amended, uncrossing his legs and swinging them over the side of the bed. "We are keeping it, right? I mean, at least until we can get a portal through to Koenma? Then we've got to name it - we can't just call it Shadow Demon or _Black_, which is what that shop owner named it."

Kurama glanced to Hiei, who merely 'Hn'ed. "Well, you do have a point, Yusuke... What do you think we should name it?"

The raven-haired detective climbed off the bed and moved over to Kurama, looking down at the little demon. "I don't know..." Slowly, he reached out his hand to pet the little guy, who looked up at him with yellow eyes practically closed in purring happiness.

And _then_ it bit him.

Yusuke screamed as all twenty razor-sharp teeth sank into his arm and he pulled back, dragging the little demon with him. He cried out once more, flailing his arm and running around in a desperate attempt to get the damn thing off of him.

Like a scene out of a comic strip, Kurama didn't know whether to laugh or groan at the embarrassment by association.

Hiei appeared in front of the detective, grabbing his flailing arm and the shadow demon attached to it. He pried the creature off of Yusuke before shoving the detective away. As the teen fell to the ground, cradling his bleeding arm, the cat-like creature jumped out of Hiei's arms with a hiss and ran back over to Kurama. With a good seven foot leap, the miniscule furball landed safely in the fox's arms where he curled up once more and resumed his purring, as happy as could be.

Sitting on the ground, blinking away the water that his eyes had summoned at the pain (they weren't tears - he wasn't crying damn it!), Yusuke muttered dark things about the shadow creature, things that will not be repeated here.

Kuwabara, trying very hard not to laugh, moved over to his best friend and sat down next to him. "Hey, I have to purify your arm."

Yusuke just nodded and stuck the injured limb out, showing the twenty or so bleeding marks forming an arch on either side of his arm. He continued his angry mutterings as Kuwabara infused his reiki into the cut, both helping to heal the wound but also cleaning it of the special properties a Shadow Demon bite entailed.

"So," Kuwabara asked, barely containing his laughter. "What _are_ we going to call it?"

"How about 'Evil Thing From Hell with Sharp Teeth that will be Thrown back to the Netherworld in a Fucking Cage!'" Yusuke growled out, pulling his arm back as Kuwabara finished. "Thing hurt like hell!"

Kurama gave a light laugh, which he quickly hid behind the back of his hand at his leader's glare. "Well, though it is a very descriptive name, what would we call it for short? E.T.F.H.? Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, now does it?"

Kuwabara gave a slight frown as they thought about shortening their new, and temporary, pet's name. "What about Evil Thingy?"

Still on the floor, Yusuke opened his mouth to poke fun at how stupid a name that was, but never got the chance as Hiei spoke up. Once more sitting in the window, he looked over at them even as the mental message hit their brains and echoed through their ears. _'Bikou'._

There was a moment of silence (half of it from the surprise of Hiei participating, the other half taking in the name) before Yusuke gave a laugh to break the noiselessness.

"You want... to name it after... a dog's _nose_?" Kuwabara asked incredulously and slowly, as if he wasn't sure Hiei was serious or not. Yusuke's laughter doubled, tears beginning to form as he clutched his stomach.

Really, it wasn't that funny.

Hiei sent both of them a deadpan glare, clearly not amused. He switched back to verbal speech, letting the translator once more turn his thoughts to English. "Idiots."

And such profound thoughts they were.

"Kuwabara," Kurama interjected, once more taking on that motherly tone he held when explaining something. "It also means to tail or shadow someone."

"You mean to follow someone around?" Kuwabara clarified, still not getting the joke Hiei was implying.

"Yes," the fox continued, looking towards the fire demon. "Hiei is actually making a pun - the creature is a shadow demon, hence the shadow reference, but also seems attached, _following_ us-" Hiei gave a light snort so Kurama amended, "-_me _around."

The fire demon enjoyed a small smirk at the obvious annoyance the last sentence seemed to have for Kurama.

"Oh, I get it!" Kuwabara exclaimed as he smiled broadly. "It's a shadow demon that shadows!" Yusuke could only laugh harder.

Kurama smiled, "Alright, it looks like we have a name for him."

"I still like 'Evil Thingy' more," a suddenly dejected Kuwabara muttered, the happiness at the former discovery wearing off.

"Alright," Yusuke said, wiping his eyes with his good arm (even though his bitten skin was almost healed), "but how are we going to call it that? These spells don't let us speak Japanese, and we can't call it telepathically like Hiei can just to keep its name in Japanese."

Kurama frowned lightly. "Well, we're not calling it _Shadow_, no matter if he stays hidden from the others. It's asking for trouble should one of them overhear us."

"Why can't we just call him Tail?" Kuwabara suggested from his previous spot on the bed. "I mean we think it's name in Japanese, so what if it's said in English. That'll work until we get those translator thingies Dumbledum was talking about, right?"

"It's Dumble_dore_, Kuwabara," the fox interjected more so out of respect than anything else. He really didn't want their orange-haired team mate slipping on the name in front of the Headmaster. "And I suppose that can work until we get the translators. We'll call him Tail."

"Ugh, it's so _dumb_ in English!" Yusuke grumbled as he laid back on the ground.

-o-o-o-

"Hurry now, dears, we'll be late for the train." Mrs. Weasely hustled the small group through the crowds formed throughout Kings Cross Station. Suffice to say, Platforms Nine and Ten were not as crowded in comparison to the main station, but there were people enough to cover their entrance through the barrier.

Which Hiei was now regarding and could hardly believe the others applied the word to seriously.

This was not a barrier.

It wasn't even a good illusion.

This was, to put it simply, typical... typical human inadequacy.

Kurama put a calming hand on Hiei's shoulder. He couldn't see through the 'barrier' as Hiei could (no one else could for that matter, just a large portion of energy where the vision of a brick wall was), but he could sense the fire demon's growing irritation.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were vollying questions between Harry and Ron - as they had been for the past two days straight. Ever since they had heard (and consequently learned) the word 'Quidditch'. Since then, it hadn't stopped. Forty-eight hours of a never-ending inquiry for more and more information on the fascinating sport.

How was it played?

What were the rules?

When could they start?

It was rumored that Ron and Harry had a little bet going as to see which one would run out of questions first. Hiei was betting on Yusuke because he had to admit surprise at Kuwabara managing more than three.

"Hurry, dears," Molly repeated, ushering Ginny through the wall, all the while glancing around to make sure no Muggle saw. "We don't want to miss the train."

"She says that every year," Ron mumbled to Harry with a roll of his eyes. "And we've never once been late."

"We did miss it one year," Harry muttered in reply, but with a grin on his face that made the two human detectives watching very curious as to the reasons.

The redhead made a dismissing snort in return as his mother tried to usher Kuwabara and Yusuke through, though it was very clear she wasn't getting far convincing them to walk into a brick wall.

They weren't _that_ stupid.

"That was one time, and it wasn't our fault!" One look from Hermione made Ron flinch and he amended his statement as she grabbed Kuwabara by the arm and pulled him through the barrier, carts and all. "Okay, it was... kind of our fault. But we got there all the same!"

"Harry, dear, help Yusuke through the barrier, won't you?" The plump, older woman's request stopped the Boy Who Lived from continuing his conversation with his best friend as he nodded.

"Sure, Mrs. Weasley." Harry turned to Yusuke and gestured towards the wall with his head. "Simple really - just walk straight into it. It's not really there. We'll take it at a run."

"Works for me," Yusuke replied, having watching Kuwabara disappear through it. "I've got a hard head, so even if it is a brick wall, I'm sure I'll be fine!"

The scarred boy gave him a slightly concerned look that was more peculiar than actually concerned before pushing his cart off and into a light jog straight at the wall. He disappeared through it, followed seconds later by Yusuke.

They were greeted by Moody and Arthur on the other side, ready and waiting for any attack that might occur at any time. Well, Mad Eye was. Mr. Weasley was more distracted and excited for another year to start and still caught up in all the hullabaloo of their foreign guests.

Lupin stood on the former side of the barrier with several other Order members, most of whose names had slipped by the tentei. He watched Ron head off into the barrier and Hiei reluctantly follow (_very_ reluctantly).

"I'll follow Kurama through, Molly," he said softly to the redheaded woman he had known for so many years. She gave him a bright smile and a cheery agreement before heading through the barrier herself.

"I can make it through a simple enchantment without a werewolf supervisor, you must realize," Kurama said softly as Lupin joined his side, a light smile on his lips.

Lupin let his own smile show a bit before just nodding. "Go on through then, I'll follow along with _them_."

The fox glanced slyly to the three remaining Order members. "I feel like a kit in need of babysitting."

Lupin merely put his hand between Kurama's shoulder blades in response and gave a playful push. The redhead gracefully stumbled (a paradox only the fox could manage so elegantly) and continued with his cart through the barrier.

The human aspect of the werewolf frowned slightly once the redhead disappeared through the brick wall.

_'Keep a hold of yourself,'_ he growled out, angry at letting the wolf out for a little canine play. He felt the animal rebuke just as angrily inside him, equally upset about being locked up as Lupin was about letting him out.

It was just a bit of fun and games.

The half-human followed through the barrier, closing his eyes as magic washed over him - through him - disorienting his system briefly enough with the slightest tug to his body. He felt his feet touch ground just as quickly as they'd left and he opened his eyes to the shining red steamer of the Hogwarts Express and the noisy crowds of Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Home sweet Home, or thereabouts.

He was at Kurama's side again and so turned to him. The wolf had a witty remark om his tongue before he could control it, but as soon as his eyes landed on the fox, it died. "Are you alright?"

The fox was frowning and staring at the cement several feet away, though certainly not seeing it. He tilted his head in the direction of the werewolf but did not look in his direction.

"Cold."

Lupin frowned. "What?"

"I'm cold." The fox turned his head and finally met Lupin's eyes with his deep green ones. He shook his head almost imperceptibly. "What were you saying?"

Yusuke pushed his cart by. "Hurry up, dears," he said in an airy, detached tone. "Don't want to be late!"

Lupin frowned as Kurama gave him a smile and walked after his teammates, Yusuke almost skipping to the train with an overly eager Kuwabara racing ahead. Hiei merely 'Hn'ed and walked amid the seven students now boarding the red steamer.

The wolf inside the former professor was screaming that something was suddenly very wrong.

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 8_

_End_

-o-o-o-

Again, huge thanks to **KyoHana** for going through this for me! She had such a big task this time (actually, she always has a huge job), so THANKS!!

**Author Notes:**

_...Kuwabara, completely wierded out..._ Yes, I know "wierded" isn't a real word. I did it on purpose.

_...According to Clause Three of the Code of Wand Use, no inhuman creature may use a wand..._ Source: MuggleNet (good source for HP information)

_...Mr. Kuwabara's...birthday lies between December and January_... I searched the internet for a very long time for the cannon date of Kuwabara's birthday and came up with nothing. If someone does know, please inform me so I can alter this. Thank you.

_...I will send the wand under a blood-sealing spell_... This will be further explained when the wand actually arrives, but it's just to insure that no one else can get the wand out of the box (a.k.a. steal the wand, since it'll be especially made for a demon (a.k.a. illegal)). This should appear in one or two chapters...I _hope_.

..._the special properties a shadow demon bite entailed... _This will be explored/revealed next chapter (in detail).

_The ending of this chapter_... is a cliffhanger that will be explained _somewhat_ next chapter but is PART OF THE PLOT and YES, a part of...DUN DUN DUN..._that night_.

Alright, anyone get that reference? That was a while ago, sheesh...-whimper- I miss my snow.

For those of you who get that reference and for those of you who know my stories or even just how I write - know that because this cliffhanger ending is part of the plot it's also part of the long haul and you won't get to know the real meaning behind it for a while...probably.

Start guessing though - I love guesses because readers tend to get really close (and they let me know how well I'm doing at writing the story!)

**End Author Notes**

Thank you and please review!


	10. Boil, Boil, Train and Trouble

**Disclaimer**: Please refer to first chapter! (actually, make it the prologue – who knows what kind of rambling I did in the first chapter…)

-o-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 9  
_

Boil, Boil, Train and Trouble

-o-o-o-o-

Exactly one week and one day ago, demons set foot in wizarding London for possibly the first time in a millennium.

And the Order of the Phoenix had been in an absolute frenzy ever since.

"You cannot be serious, Albus!" McGonagal had admonished the night of the boys' mysterious arrival. Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, had just finished the lesser details of his (self-proclaimed) brilliant plan on how to handle the situation.

Needless to say, the uptight, traditional, and all-for-the-safety-of-the-students-before-all-else Transfiguration professor was not very happy with this oh-so-brilliant plan.

"I assure you I am quite solemn in the matter, Minerva," Dumbledore replied, sitting at the head of the table in the kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place. The other members of the Order were sitting around him (and some even standing in their distress – or boredom, it might appear in the occasional case). "They will be safest at the school where we will draw Voldemort to us."

Ignoring the occasional shudder that passed through the room, Snape shifted ever so slightly from his position, leaning against the wall. "Headmaster, if I may," he began, oily voice as seemingly civil with the older man as always. "Surely you have not forgotten the possibility that these boys may be more than just boys-"

"I am well aware that one or more of them may be demonic," Dumbledore affirmed without a second's hesitation, a smiling light in his eyes. Several of his teachers that made up the organization continued to look as if he had truly lost it this time.

The oldest and wisest member of this Order - not to mention its leader – had yet to lead them astray, though some of his more outlandish plans had brought doubt among many. But willingly bringing demons into the safest place they had right now, and where their children were, no less?

There had to be more to this.

"If that's the case, than maybe there's somethin' more you should be tellin' us," Madeye cut in with his gruff voice, leaning slightly on his gnarled cane. His eye wasn't swiveling – for once focused solely on the Headmaster, though he was likely to get little out of such a wizard.

The old man smiled a bit, but it contained more strain than his normal, 'be happy' smile; the one meant to keep his students from worrying when things were about to get really bad.

That meant things were about to get even worse.

"Indeed," he said with a voice on the edge of a smile. It was like the man to wait for them to ask him for the information. He was forthcoming when you asked the right questions, but usually not before then. "I have attempted to contact the Japanese Ministry – or the eastern version of such – but am having trouble.

"It seems in the middle of my attempts to find out any information on these four missing boys, their minister had to cut our conversation…rather short." McGonagal's eyebrows rose up in that suspicious manner she would often reserve for troublesome children who were trying to lie their way out of punishment.

"Apparently, they are experiencing a crisis right now," Dumbledore continued, a small huff making him sound like a child deprived of the candy he had asked for, "the details of which they are reluctant to discuss with me."

The members of the Order glanced to one another, gauging the others' expressions to their leader's words. Obviously, none of them were buying what the Japanese minister had said.

McGonagal's eyebrows were almost touching her hairline – a look she had pioneered for the Weasley twins alone.

Snape moved from his position in the darker corner of the already dim kitchen and uncrossed his arms, that shady look, which often spoke of the plans going on in the back of his head, coming into his eyes. "Headmaster, don't you think that's a little odd?"

Dumbledore looked up at him, glasses reflecting the light of the candles as his eyes took on an almost innocent, clueless look. They all knew him well enough to know he was aware of everything that was 'a little odd.'

Snape continued anyway, enjoying his moment to speak, the slight rise in his voice making it clear he was addressing the entire order. "An ancient spell from a world long destroyed summons four boys from Japan, one of which we know must be….."

"Ah, but we can only speculate, Severus."

"…Of course, Headmaster. Four Japanese boys, one of which _should_ be a demon by the spell's details, and now the Japanese ministry is having some supposed crisis which they won't explain to you, a long time advocate and friend?"

Others around the table were muttering to each other, agreeing all too firmly with the accusations in the potion master's words.

"Severus is right," McGonagal spoke, her voice stern, demanding a new route in their decisions. "One coincidence is already one too many, Albus, but this?"

"I am well aware," the bearded man replied, looking to each of them in turn and meeting them with his deep, wise eyes, "in times like these, coincidences simply do not exist."

"Then will you detain them?"

"We cannot have demons running around, Dumbledore."

"Why?" the Headmaster cut back into the sudden noise of the kitchen, silencing all of their protests and demands. "Because as of this morning demons did not exist? Because we thought them to be extinct?"

His question brought silence to the room once more and the other members struggled to answer. It was such an obvious answer that they were immediately aware it was the wrong one: because demons are evil.

But Dumbledore was a teacher – one of those teachers they all knew well enough to know when he was asking a trick question. And he was almost daring one of them to give him that answer, because they all knew already if such an answer came so easily, it was probably not the right one.

And in this case, it was an unacceptable one. They knew nothing of these boys, so they had no right to call them out due to race.

A few of the members cast bare glances to the figure at the back of the room, nearest to the door. His pale face remained stoically sad, staring off into the fire and seemingly lost to the rest of the world.

"Remus?" Dumbledore called softly, summoning his attention back to the present. The werewolf turned to him, not truly having been listening but also not really having been ignoring them either. "You have been quiet all this time, is there something you wish to say?"

Lupin glanced around at all the eyes now locked on him, as if noticing he was in a room full of people for the first time. He supposed Dumbledore had drawn attention to him because he had a right to speak in some way. Like these demons – if they were that – he was a member of a race named in general not in individuality.

"Well…the lot of you are treating them like criminals," he replied, not truly sure what he was saying. He didn't want these demons at the school, not with Harry, not drawing Voldemort anywhere near him and his friends. But he couldn't condemn them either, even if he, too, believed they were most likely evil. "The summoning spell brought them here; it wasn't their choice…. It…It isn't right to treat them as the suspects of a crime they were never given the option to commit."

Dumbledore was smiling at him, which made him want to turn away – made him want to leave. The man had merely asked him to speak because he knew that Lupin would defend those boys with the right to live freely without labels and race tacked on to them. Often, he disliked how the Headmaster used those around him so easily as the means to his own ends.

"Well then," the older man turned to look at the other members, who still looked less than convinced. "Unless you can give me solid demonic evidence that is more convincing than Hiei's red eyes – something half of the magical creatures in _The Monster Book of Monsters_ possess – I believe we can welcome four new students to Hogwarts this year."

Looks of intense worry were all the reply Dumbledore's statement received. Well, that and Tonks' overly enthusiastic suggestion of hiding metamorphmagus Aurors throughout the new students, as well.

-o-o-o-

One week and one day later, Lupin was watching those four boys – and now confirmed three demons (er…two and half? One and two halves?) – boarding the Hogwarts Express bound for the safest place in all of the UK.

And Harry was climbing on right behind them.

Lupin was already worried enough for the boy. He had been so…depressed for the entire duration of his stay at his Godfather's place this summer and had only just seemed to come out of it with the new arrivals. Though, the werewolf was pretty sure he was a long way from full recovery.

The once-professor glanced to the others standing beside him as Hiei disappeared into the train's corridors just behind Kurama. Molly was watching her children vanish with just as much apprehension.

She knew the dangers that awaited her children this year as well. And this time, it seemed as if they would be sitting beside them the entire way.

Lupin had a feeling that more people than usual were praying the Headmaster knew what he was doing.

The werewolf frowned, replaying bits of the conversation he had recalled (relying on the pesky wolf for the pieces he had missed – at the time, he hadn't understood that inner voice's attentiveness). He disliked more and more how the Headmaster kept things from the Order and from Harry. Lupin felt it was an unnecessary risk that often put them in a danger he wasn't willing to place his best friend's godson in any more.

He'd put it on himself to take care of Harry, in the name of the two best friends that he hadn't been able to protect.

Madeye, standing beside Lupin, elbowed him in the back. "You're forgetting the translators," he muttered in a guttural voice. The werewolf, stumbling from the physical reminder, looked up at him.

"_Maybe that new professor will know something."_ That's what Moody had said when he walked up between the two after the meeting had been called. Dumbledore had just smiled.

"_I will be meeting with Professor Mushayama when she returns."_

"_She left_?" That had been news that started Lupin into speaking. The new Defense teacher that the Headmaster had hired was supposed to be some brilliant mind on all methods of Dark Arts and defending against them.

They could really use that kind of knowledge right now, even if no one knew how Dumbleldore had found her. Or, according to him, how she had found him.

"_Apparently she was summoned back to Asia to deal with this Crisis that we, again, are not privy to know about." _Though there was humor in Dumbledore's voice, his eyes had shown a distress that only came about when he was unaware of a situation.

It worried Lupin deeply, even as Madeye had growled out, _"That's a bit of a coincidence as well."_

"_I know. We just seem to keep stacking them up, don't we?"_

As Lupin stared at Madeye, the swiveling eye locking on him for a second, he was jolted back to the present. His eyes widened in recognition and he dug into his pocket. "Oh, right, the translator charms!" He ran forward, dodging the others on the platform, and then along the train's side, looking into the compartment windows until he saw the red shock of Kurama's hair.

The fox replied easily when called to, lowering the window and smiling at him as he stuck his head out.

Lupin handed him a deep gold box, wrapped with a dark green ribbon. "The translators. We had them made into pendants to wear around your necks. They should allow you to speak without the translation spells."

Kurama, smiling away the surprise at the sudden appearance of the werewolf beneath the window, as well as the gift, thanked him and accepted the box. He handed them to Hiei who tore the ribbon off with less than graceful patience.

"How do we get these stupid spells off then?" Yusuke asked, leaning out the window, his head banging against Kurama's and earning him a light but more playful glare.

Lupin faltered for a minute, having forgotten to remove them. "Have Hermione do it, she's a brilliant enough witch to remove them for you."

Kurama nodded as the train jolted, sending the two friends' heads into each other much harder this time. The redhead winced – Yusuke didn't even seem to notice.

"Eh, sorry," he said sheepishly as he received a dark glare from his friend, who was holding his head and pulling back inside the car. "Hard as a rock, and all…" Yusuke turned back to the man standing on the deck below and grinned cockily, something that seemed to fit his nature. "Thanks Mr. Lupin!"

The darker-haired teen pulled his head back inside the window, leaving the werewolf on the platform, staring up slightly at the window even as the train started moving. He could hear Molly's alternating death threats to behave and goodbyes aimed at the next window over mixed in with the other calls and cries of parents and children alike.

The train was out of sight long before he was ready for it to be and long before the noise began to dim. His goodbye to Harry had been too brief – still too worried that he could never be there for the boy as Sirius had been.

As he turned back, a heavy hand came down on his frail shoulder. "Quit moping." The growl brought him back to focus and he couldn't help but smile at Moody, who seemed to be there for him whenever he most needed someone these days.

"I'm not moping," he replied, sounding more like he had in the days when he, Sirius, and James had all attended Hogwarts.

"_Stop moping. Don't you know the face on the moon is a grinning one?"_

"_I'm not moping, Pads."_

"_Well you're certainly not grinning, Moony."_

He smiled slightly at the memory and allowed his body to follow the flow of other parents leaving Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Inside, the wolf was screaming past the confines of its whispering cage. As always, Lupin pushed it to the side and ignored him.

-o-o-o-

Harry tried to pay attention to Neville, knee deep in an invigorating story about the Fluxweed plant he was currently holding. Apparently, the plant, dotted with blue flowers (and filling the car with a minty smell) was rather rare and took his Grandmother a bit of work to acquire.

The Boy Who Lived just couldn't make himself pay attention. Hm, wonder why.

It wasn't so much that he wasn't interested (okay, he really wasn't) but Harry had other things more pressing to think about. And it was something he never imagined himself actually spending brainpower on.

Demons.

Could they be real? It wouldn't be the first time for Harry to come face to face with animals or things he never imagined existed before. That's something one gets used to in the wizarding world.

But, on the other hand, it wouldn't be the first time that Voledmort purposefully put a dream into his mind to make him think something was going on that wasn't.

_Sirius._

Harry pushed away the sorrow, the pain, the _guilt_, and focused solely on previous thoughts. Demons. Demon, demons, demons. Not Sirius.

So which was the more likely of the two? Still, Harry had trouble wrapping his mind around the thought of demons – he didn't want to imagine a new threat. Yet at the same time, he had a feeling this wasn't just a dream implanted by his rival.

Something was telling him this was different.

And so he chose to trust his instincts and believe in the first of the two options. Okay, so maybe demons did exist. First he had to make himself accept that, and then he and Ron and Hermione (especially Hermione – mainly Hermione) could start working on some sort of plan to defend themselves.

Neville was still going on about his plant, now into the minute details of everything for which the Fluxweed could be used. After the tournament two years ago, and the boy's helpful knowledge of Gillyweed, Harry had tried to pay more attention to his words (endless babble) on herbology, should he need it again.

He hadn't lasted a week before tuning the poor boy out became automatic once more.

The door to their compartment slid open, interrupting his thoughts (somehow jumping between ignoring Neville and contemplating demons was confusing his brain into contemplating Neville and ignoring demons) and revealed Kurama and Yusuke (and suddenly demons wasn't so hard to concentrate on, anymore). Harry, Neville, and Luna, the only three occupying the car, turned to the two new boys.

Neville seemed to squeak, holding his Fluxweed close to his chest (as if these two boys might steal it). "Wh-who are you?"

Kurama smiled almost charmingly (and Harry wondered if his glasses were working because it looked like the redhead actually glanced down at the plant in interest – and something the Boy Who Lived could only describe as _desire_ – weird Japanese kids). "I'm Kurama Minamino," the redheaded boy said, extending his hand to Neville in a gesture meant to calm the human.

Harry smiled when the boy looked to him for confirmation that this was something safe to do. He still didn't know why so many turned to him, especially in such cases. "It's okay, Neville, I know these two. They're transfers to Hogwarts."

"Transfers?" Luna's light, airy voice interrupted anything Neville or the others might have said. She glanced over the top (well, technically the bottom) of her upside-down issue of _The Quibbler_ and observed the two boys with the same look she always seemed to wear.

"Yes, four are from Japan, and Kurama and Yusuke are two of them," Harry replied, reciting the lie Dumbledore had been very persistent the trio know before leaving for Kings Cross Station. "Did you want something?"

"Yeah," Yusuke began, having nodded at the two kids he didn't recognize before looking back to Harry. "Lupin gave us translator thingies-"

"Charms, Mr. Potter, but we need Miss Granger to remove the current translation spell placed upon us before we can use them," Kurama continued, knowing from experience he was going to…phrase the request far better than his companion. "Do you happen to know where she is?"

Harry glanced between the two, briefly wondering why one of the Order hadn't removed the spell themselves. "Well, she's a Prefect, so she won't-"

"She's a what?"

The Boy Who Lived couldn't help the smile at Yusuke's interruption. No matter how much magical information they had tried to cram into the four boys between the week of shopping in Diagon Alley and the trip to Platform Nine and Three Quarters, nothing seemed to stick with them.

Well, at least not with Yusuke or Kuwabara. Kurama had retained the information somewhat, forgetting the more detailed facts in between but remembering the gist of everything mentioned. And Hiei…well, Harry couldn't tell if the smallest of their guests even listened to begin with.

But, then again, that seemed to be the norm with…everything discussed with these boys.

"Er, Prefects," the brunette repeated. "They're like…student council or…Hall Monitors. They have certain authority over the rest of the students and a few duties-"

"Like monitoring the train," Neville piped in, then grew sheepish after realizing his interruption and hid himself behind hunched shoulders.

Harry's smile grew into an encouraging gesture he aimed towards the boy. Neville had certainly changed since the battle in the Ministry Building last year.

The Boy Who Lived ignored the pain that gripped his chest like the icy hand of a Dementor.

"Which is where Hermione and Ron are now," Harry continued, looking back to the two standing in the doorway and giving another smile to bury any emotion going through him. "They should be back in a little while. If you want, I'll let her know for you. She can stop by then."

Kurama nodded, giving a small bow of his head. "We'd greatly appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Potter."

"Er, Harry's still okay, Kurama."

"Of course, Harry."

Kurama slid the door shut on the Boy Who Lived, who was shaking his head in something between confusion and amusement. Yusuke tucked his hands behind his shock of (still un-gelled – which was really beginning to tick the Spirit Detective off –) hair and started back for their compartment, two cars down.

"It'll be nice to be able to speak Japanese again," the detective began, pushing up on his hands so his hair ruffled under his fingers (if it was gelled, it wouldn't have done that!) "Real Japanese, I mean – instead of thinking it and getting…uh…this."

Kurama merely nodded beside him, giving a soft affirmative before entering their own car behind his leader. He sat back down beside Hiei, wrapping his arms around himself, fingers lightly gripping either of his upper arms.

The fire demon, who had declined (translation: stayed completely silent) to go with Yusuke and Kurama, glanced at the fox. He frowned at the slight shake that went through his companion, his eyes narrowing at the raised bumps running up and down his skin.

Sensing the hiyoukai's eyes on him, green irises turned and met them. "I'm fine, Hiei. Merely cold."

"Cold?" Kuwabara mimicked, a quick in his eyebrow. "I think it's kind of warm in here."

"And getting warmer," Yusuke muttered as the temperature in the compartment rose several degrees. Hiei was fluxing his energy ever so slightly, raising the heat of the room.

Kurama couldn't help but smile at his thoughtfulness and thanked him as his skin warmed and he relaxed, his arms going back to his side and hands resting now in his lap. Yusuke shut Kuwabara up before complaints could even begin, happy to give the two a quiet little moment, even if neither of them knew it was a quiet little moment.

"Get your hand off my mouth, Urameshi!" The quiet moment ruined, the detective gave a shrug, releasing the headlock and vice-grip he held over Kuwabara's mouth. Even through the muffled noises, the occupants of the room had understood his words. "You want me to give you another pounding?"

"Another?" Yusuke laughed, tilting his head back with the reverberating sound. "You haven't been able to knock me to the ground, let alone beat me, in all the years I've known you!"

His boisterous laughter filled the compartment, causing Kuwabara to try and tackle him in the very small space, tempting Hiei to detach both their heads from their shoulders, and in turn, tempting Kurama to detach both of the boys from each other.

"Yusuke, Kuwabara," the redhead interrupted, trying to stifle both a chuckle of amusement and a groan of annoyance as the boys managed to settle down. "You're not supposed to remember things like that."

Yusuke gave an over-exaggerated sigh as he collapsed heavily against the back of the seat. The car was bumping along now, the train picking up speed as it traveled through the countryside. "Yeah, when can we start remembering things again?"

"That's the problem, Yusuke. It would take some sort of traumatic event to bring our memories back fully or even partially." Kurama carefully extracted Bikou from his hiding spot as he spoke. Back at the Burrow, the group, upon wondering exactly how they would hide the shadow demon, quickly found out that not only was he a very transparent and sly creature, but he loved playing around in the fox's hair and clothing.

Kurama hadn't been so sure hiding a shadow demon on his body was a smart idea but he was quickly out-voted. Just watching the overly graceful fox try and walk around the first few hours with a squirming, deadly youkai in his pants had them all laughing hard enough to out-vote him on _anything_.

Now Yusuke was eyeing the thing as it came out of hiding, lying comfortably on Kurama's lap and purr-wheezing once more. That thing was Evil Reincarnated.

Hiei still couldn't understand it and (similar to Yusuke, but for far more logical reasons) didn't trust it either.

Kuwabara, on the other hand, was still trying to befriend the shadow demon that looked too much like a kitten for the teen's own good. He'd yet to actually successfully pet their new pet, but the sporting of several new cuts and bites – all purified by his surrounding teammates, of course – showed that he was still trying!

Nothing would stop the Mighty and Manly Kuwabara from gaining the love of a new kitten!

But back to the topic at hand. Kuwabara was frowning, a look he normally adopted when thinking too hard or too much about something. "Would it be stupid to wish for a traumatic event?"

"Quite possibly."

Yusuke slouched in his seat. "Too late."

Before Kurama could send him a warning glance laced with amusement, Kuwabara gripped his hair, looking ready to pull it out in frustration. "I'm so sick of trying to remember not to remember anything!"

"And failing."

"Shut it, Shrimp!"

The fox demon raised a hand, trying to calm the situation (especially since Bikou had raised his head and narrowed its yellow slits of eyes). "You two, can we not start so early?"

However, as the train chugged along on the long journey to a new school year, the boys settled into their usual antics anyways – Yusuke and Kuwabara recalling their best fights (and whose fight was better, which would lead into an argument as to which one was a better fighter, which would lead to an actual fight, which would lead to Kuwabara getting his face smashed into the floor of the car); Kurama politely ignoring them, if not for the interruption merely to remind them to keep it down; and Hiei simply ignoring them all, seemingly asleep as he leaned against the wall.

As they bumped along, occasionally jostled more often than the last as they hit a rougher patch of rails or the train rounded a slight corner (bridges seemed to be particularly rough and, for some reason, they seemed to cross an odd number of those on their journey), Kurama couldn't help but listen as his two teammates sat recalling their favorite opponents.

"Jin's definitely still in my top…five," Yusuke decided after a small bout of thinking (this wasn't easy stuff – he'd had a lot of fights after all!) Somewhere along the way, they'd progressed from fights in general to the fights of the Dark Tournament.

Hiei cracked an eye open.

"I don't know," Kuwabara countered, rubbing his chin with his forefinger in thought. "All my fights were kinda' sucky at the tournament. I didn't really like any of 'em."

Yusuke glanced at the fire demon, who had a small, almost irresistible smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. However, when it was clear he wasn't going to give away his 'I'm-really-asleep-so-you-don't-know-that-I'm-really-listening' stealth mode for the sake of a joke, the detective looked back to Kuwabara and said, "I think that was a personal problem."

Another fight ensued.

Kuwabara found himself with his face smashed into the floor of the car…again.

Kurama began rubbing his temples slightly from the constant noise affliction and bursts of fighting which were beginning to give him a light headache. He was no longer trying to stop them. His thoughts, instead, had drifted to less jovial topics he had long been trying to bury beneath his conscience.

Hiei glanced over at the fox, both red eyes opening at the slight furrow of his brow over those green eyes and the distant, dark look that overtook once-bright pupils. The fire demon knew that look – his best friend had worn it for almost two months straight after the Dark Tournament.

It had taken spying on him in the middle of the night to figure out what was causing that look, because Heaven, Hell, and Spirit World together all knew Kurama wasn't the type to come forward when he was having a problem he felt was his own to deal with.

And that problem was a violet-eyed crow demon named Karasu.

Hiei had had his fair share of nightmares (with his upbringing, he'd eventually accepted them as a fact and not a weakness) and so managed not to take Kurama's fears as complete frailty, though he had wondered why this particular demon plagued him so – and apparently still did.

Kurama glanced at him, that dark look fleeting as he caught sight of red eyes. He lightly reprimanded himself for being caught with his mind adrift by the one person to whom he always tried to prove his focus and abilities.

That seemed to be happening a lot lately.

So the fox demon gave a smile to ward off the dark feeling clouding deeply in his chest. Hiei didn't seem to buy it, which made Kurama laugh; sometimes the fire demon's worry, endearing to no end, was also limitlessly cute.

Reaching out and ruffling his hair (laughing harder at the glare that followed and the small hand that pushed his longer, feminine limb away), the kitsune just grinned almost teasingly. "I'm fine, Hiei. Thank you for your concer-"

Kurama stopped mid sentence – perhaps the first hint that something was wrong. With red eyes locked on him before his words even died, the kitsune retracted his hand as if burned and curled is body around the limb.

"Fox?" Hiei, the first to straighten immediately (with Yusuke and Kuwabara a second behind) reached out to grab him but hissed and pulled back, staring at his own hand. The kitsune was freezing cold to the touch, as if he'd just walked away from a day spent in a freezer.

"C-Cold…" Kurama was almost hyperventilating with how fast he was trying to breathe to keep the air going through his lungs warm and the dark, painful feeling of claws wrapped around his chest from digging in any further than they already seemed to be.

Yusuke leapt to his feet, moving over to Kurama and throwing off his own jacket to wrap around the fox, letting out a yelp when his hand came in contact with the kitsune's skin as well. "What the hell!"

Kuwabara let out a similar yell when the temperature in the car suddenly spiked – going up at least fifteen degrees as Hiei fluxed his power once more, only this time with a much more serious expression and a darker look in his eyes. Yusuke glanced between the two, focused more on Kurama who didn't seem to feel the warmth at all.

"Kurama, what's wrong, man?" he asked, trying to shake him out of his shivering, feeling the cold radiating from the fox even through the extra layers of clothing. Kurama managed to lift his head, green eyes wide and distant as they locked with Yusuke's.

"D-Death. It feels like d-death did, Yusuke," he whispered, his voice permeated with the shivering of his body. The detective, confused, took a step back and away from those scared, emerald eyes.

The lights on the train went out and the students' screams ran up and down the train for the second time in Hogwarts' history.

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 9  
_

End

-o-o-o-

Alright, so I tried to get more HP group in there, and just ended up with Lupin and the Order. But not to worry, Harry N' Friends finally get a good debut next chapter and from there on out it should be a more even mix.

Hopefully. These things never go where I plan (or tell them) to.

Thank you and please Review!


	11. Fire Burns the Dark to Ruble Part II

**Disclaimer**: Refer to prior chapters.

**Japanese Words**: I have not found a word suitable for shadow demon energy. Right now, it will remain as Youki, though I'm not thrilled about that.

**Delay Note**: I apologize for not having this out sooner. I hit the same confidence issues I did last time, only this time I couldn't back out so it resulted in not wanting to write. And then finals week hit and I didn't basically sleep for five days straight. XD Good times. Good times.

So I've given you an extra-long chapter to make up for it! And thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter - especially those who sent me PMs when they couldn't because of ff . net!

-o-o-o-o-

**_Keeping Quiet_**

_Chapter 10_

Fires Burns the Dark to Rubble (Pt. II)

-o-o-o-o-

Hermione and Ron had just returned from their annual Prefect train duties, plopping down next to and across from Harry, when it happened. For the second time in his attendance of Hogwarts, the lights of the train flickered before shutting off completely.

The Boy Who Lived was immediately on his feet, ignoring the surprised calls of his friends and pressing his face to the window, searching for the dark shapes that would be against the cold night sky. They couldn't be here – not again.

"Dementors?" Ron asked shakily, voicing Harry's own thoughts. It couldn't be. There was no reason for them to be-

_Voldemort_.

"Again?" Hermione was standing too. He could see her silhouette in the bluish light filtering in from the cloudy night outside their window.

"The train's not s-stopping," Neville whispered, holding his plant close as nervous eyes darted back and forth. "The train stopped l-last time."

Hermione glanced at Harry even as her body swayed with the movement of the car rounding a curve. Could Dementors get on a moving train? They had a sort of gliding or…er…floating ability, so that wasn't to say it was impossible…

"No." The soft refusal, more like a knowledgeable secret finally being imparted to its audience, came from the ever-calm Luna Lovegood. Her hair was luminescent in the light and gave an eerie, almost ethereal feeling as she went from her distant, doe-like staring to focusing on Harry. "These are something different."

Before Ron could mutter anything about loony rubbish or Hermione could look to Harry, both confirming that glazed look in Luna's eyes that always seemed to bode ill for the group, what light was in the compartment suddenly vanished.

A collective intake of breath – the subtle, quiet gasp that prayed they had no reason to be as afraid as they were – was accompanied by each member taking a staggered step away from the door.

The hallway beyond had become so shrouded in darkness it appeared not to be there at all.

Wands were pulled as the handle of the door creaked, shaking as if by its own accord before whoever dared open it found its secrets and it released with a metallic pop. The door slid open, slower than any dramatic horror film Harry had ever seen when he'd been dragged to the theatres by Dudley on those rare occasions when his cousin demanded his company.

Darkness, to an extent that none present had ever seen before, was _flowing_ just beyond their door. As if alive and a river of black, the liquid darkness that had consumed the hallway moved, pulsing as it seemed to weave – towards them and then away, forward and then back.

Harry looked down at the tendrils of it sweeping slowly across the floor, every once in a while hooking themselves into their compartment before being swept off by the invisible force that continued to move the nothingness.

"What is this?" Hermione whispered – the sound clueing Harry and Ron in on how very screwed they were.

Hermione knew _everything_.

Ron, now pale from head to toe and looking very much like he'd just seen the second biggest spider of his lifetime, turned to her. He opened his mouth to question her lack of knowledge.

Only a scream – no, a screech unlike anything Harry had ever heard before – erupted through the compartment. He turned towards the door in time to be shoved back by the blackness that suddenly lurched forward into the compartment.

He cried out as he stumbled, tripping over someone behind him and falling backwards. He heard something connect with the window – a heavy thud that rattled the glass. But he couldn't be concerned with the details of who had hit what.

Green eyes were locked on the darkness, for it wasn't just a bulge of solid black connected to the lost hallway beyond. No, there were two glowing yellow eyes – that's all he could describe of the almond spheres piercing through his own.

And teeth.

Open wide in a disorienting location on what he could only assume as the face of darkness itself, was a mouth full of several rows of very sharp teeth. Beyond the calcium and enamel death was more darkness, waiting to swallow their flesh.

And it was screeching. The scream that echoed in their ears had not decreased, pulsing with the very movement of that which created it. He could feel it entering his head, expanding until his brain and skull could hold no more, and throbbing like the beginnings of a migraine. Harry struggled to keep his grip on his wand. From the corner of his eye he could see Neville covering his ears, weapon abandoned on the floor.

And then it was gone.

Harry, wand arm extended yet no spell on his tongue, stared shakily at the empty compartment door – blackness slithering outside. He scrambled to his feet in the sudden silence, discovering that he was lying in the tangled mass of limbs and body parts that was Hermione and Ron.

The redhead, nursing his pounding skull (courtesy of the window), sat up as Hermione managed to clamber back onto the seats. Rubbing his head and feeding his fingers through his hair in a search for blood, he looked back to the door. "Wh-what the bloody hell was that thing!"

His exclamation, loud enough to qualify as a shout, was met by Neville slamming the door shut, his hands shaking so badly that he couldn't make it lock. Calm, pale fingers covered his and he looked over to Luna as she slowly slid the lock shut.

Harry kept his wand at the ready, not willing to believe that a door could keep out…well, whatever that thing was. He looked back at Hermione, who was helping Ron to his feet with unsteady hands.

"We've got to do something – those things might be all over the tra-" Harry's heroics were interrupted as Hermione looked towards him, ready to offer any ideas, and screamed.

Though nowhere near the level of the creature previously making all the noise, it was enough to draw their attention and follow her wide, terrified gaze. Harry spun, looking over his shoulder at the very thing that had prompted Hermione to express such fear.

And froze as well.

His shadow, stretched across the wall behind him from the barely visible light of the windows, was definitely moving on its own. And said movements included peeling off the wall and reaching towards him.

Once more he fell back in a scramble to flee the dark claw coming at him. Everything blurred as Neville's frightened yelp combined with Hermione's scream, the crashing of a potted plant, and Luna's distant voice.

A flash of light filled the compartment as he hit the ground of the train. He shut his eyes against the blinding change and slammed his hands over his ears as the screech returned in tones of withering pain.

The light faded even as his mind caught up with the events around him and Luna's call of "Lumos!" echoed into nothingness. The darkness, previously reaching towards him had lost all form of shape once more and was _writhing _in movement. Flickers of what appeared to be a human form grabbing at its skull pulsed in and out of view, quickly lost again to the constant changing darkness.

Harry fought to sit up even as the black _thing _let out a final, deafening screech that crumpled Hermione and Ron, and darted towards the door. The Boy Who Lived cried out to Neville, standing between the locked exit and the darkness, but the lithe boy heard nothing over the shriek.

His eyes widened as the shadow launched itself at him and before he knew what had truly happened, he found himself shoved to the side with a cry and a flash of pain surging up his arm. The compartment door whipped open as Neville hit the bench.

Orange light flashed from the hallway beyond, the darkness gone and replaced with the filtering moonlight from outside. The shriek of the monster suddenly rose an octave, becoming a death cry, before it silenced altogether. The black mass rapidly withered away, like smoke in a vacuum-sealed room, leaving only the occasional glint of orange and a huffing Kuwabara in their doorway.

"Stay in there!" the Japanese boy demanded before any of the young wizards could fully catch hold of the situation. "Turn on as many lights as you can – the brighter the better. It hurts them!"

Their door was slammed shut again – bouncing as it hit the frame and sliding closed once more. Luna grabbed hold of the handle and pulled, but there was no locking click.

The door was broken.

"Lumos." Light filled their compartment again, steady and continuous, from Hermione's wand. Harry, brain furiously working to make sense of events started not a full five minutes ago, turned to take stock of his friends and their injuries.

Hermione climbed off of the seat she had been standing on as she whispered in a hush, "Oh, Neville!" and moved over to the boy. He was curled around his arm, huddled on the compartment seat.

Harry moved over as well, casting a glance to Luna as she continued to hold the door shut even though there was no more darkness beyond the glass. Her watchful eyes never left the moonlit hallway outside.

Hermione's shushing caught his attention once more as she tried to comfort their whimpering friend. She managed to pry Neville's arm away from his own clutches. He was squinting, his watery eyes focused on the wounded limb.

"It's hurts."

Hermione smiled sympathetically as she looked down at the injured limb. Three long gashes ran up most of the length of his forearm and oozed a sickeningly black liquid mixed with the boy's blood. Harry, feeling useless as his friend began trying to heal the wound with magic, looked back towards Ron.

The redhead, still mumbling to himself and sitting below the window of the compartment, was rubbing his sore head and trying desperately to recover and hide the pale shaking that had overtaken him.

"You all right?" Harry asked as he extended a hand to his best friend. The redhead just nodded, not trusting his mouth with words at the moment, and took the offered help. Although the scarred wizard felt the need for humor – anything to try and shake off whatever just happened – he found himself turning back towards the Luna-held door. "What were those things?"

Looking much like he had when he had been spitting up slugs almost three years ago, Ron just shook his head and sat down on a seat.

"It's not healing." Hermione gave a frustrated cry as she turned away from Neville, wand waving with every angry gesture of her hand. "I can't find a spell to heal the cut."

Harry followed the moving wand until it pointed towards the oozing wound and grimaced. The black…stuff gave the fresh scratches an already infected appearance. "Calm down, Hermione. It's not going to kill him."

As he spoke, he moved over to Luna and glanced out the window as well.

"They're lighting the way." His head turned at her words, but her glazed eyes were far from anything in the hallway. Confused, he tried to follow but could see nothing more than the moonlit train beyond their door.

"We should go help Kuwabara. If there's more of those _things_, he might need our help," Harry decided firmly, reaching for the handle of the door, still covered by Luna's hand.

"He told us to stay here, Harry." The interjection by the ever-wise Hermione sounded less than convincing. "I…I think he killed that thing."

"Didn't you _hear _it?" Ron replied, voicing his own thoughts. His words sounded as pale as his face. "That thing definitely died."

Still. Harry looked back into the hallway. He tried to recall if others had screamed when the lights went out – when the black nothingness opened their door. But he had been busy handling their situation (and not very well, he berated himself) and couldn't remember hearing anything.

Maybe the darkness had just attacked them.

Hermione cast an uncertain glance to Harry, as if he might suddenly throw open the door and vanish, before she turned back to Neville. The boy was hissing quietly, grabbing his arm as the black liquid seeped out of his wound with his own pulsing veins.

As Harry watched through the glass, debating on whether to venture out of not, Hermione returned to trying to heal the cuts on Neville's arm.

-o-o-o-

"What the hell?" Yusuke literally leapt up from his seat as their world was suddenly consumed in dim, moonlit darkness. He glanced towards the compartment door even as Kuwabara stood beside him.

Hiei, quickly taking into account the situation, kept his attention almost solely on the shivering fox gripped in his arms.

"D-Death." Kurama had been repeating that word and only that word for several minutes, his voice always hushed and full of fear. Curled around himself, he could feel Bikou purring and rubbing against his stomach, tucked warmly inside his clothing.

It was the only warmth he could manage to secure, apart from the distant heat of Hiei's energy.

Yusuke and Kuwabara moved towards the door, both pressing their faces to the glass. The latter let out a yelp, jumping back after several seconds as the world outside their compartment vanished. Joining his friend in the short retreat, Yusuke immediately clenched his hand, forefinger and thumb held loosely out and ready to channel his spirit energy.

"No way," the raven-haired detective murmured in disbelief, words filtered through clenched teeth. "There's no way in fucking hell!"

Even he couldn't complain with the angry translation the charm gave him. Kuwabara drew his rei-ken, orange light flickering through the compartment. Neither boys' eyes ever left the door or the pulsing blackness beyond.

Hiei glanced up as the two, in seconds, were tense and ready for an obvious battle. Red irises darted to the door shrouded in black but said nothing. He stood, releasing the fox who whimpered as the warmth he provided faded.

The metal handle jerked and clicked before the door slid open.

Kuwabara let out a cry as he jumped forward without hesitation, sword slashing. The hallway erupted in shrill, demonic cries and Yusuke's finger pulsed blue.

"Shadow demons," Yusuke swore, lifting his hand as Kuwabara lit the darkness, revealing several pairs of glowing eyes and more teeth than he felt the need to count. At point-blank range, Yusuke had no trouble taking several of them out with a single shot.

"Hey!" Kuwabara yelped as a couple of the hairs dangling from his pompadour fashion (which he prided himself on, mind you) singed away. "Watch where you're aimiiiiing!"

His complaint turned into a strangled cry as he barely dodged the claws that swept for him. The sword he held thickened, producing more light and the shadows seemed to retreat from it, scrambling over one another to escape.

"Less complaining, more ass-kicking." Yusuke was in the hallway by then, his back almost to Kuwabara's as he shot repeated bursts of energy down the length of the train, burning shadow demons into nothing but wisps of black smoke.

Within the compartment, Hiei stood beside the curled form of the fox, his hands by his side. His two teammates outside, once the shadows had fled from fighting distance, followed after with battle cries, each taking an end of the train.

"Idiots," he muttered, red eyes darting back and forth across the threshold of the room he stood in. He could hear the screams of students up and down the train. His wrist twitched and a flame flickered into creation within his curled grasp.

Light fluttered around the two forms, casting a yellow and orange glow throughout the compartment and into the empty hallway beyond. Yusuke and Kuwabara might be chasing shadows down the train – obviously helping the students along the way, considering their _human_ sentimentality – but Hiei had enough experience with the creatures to know they wouldn't stay cornered.

Shadow demons flocked to anywhere that held food and darkness. And right now, Hiei and Kurama were the best source of both.

He increased the size of the flame held at his side until it grew into a healthy sized fireball. The flickering heat wrapping around it flowed rhythmically with an unseen wind and he held it up, brightening the compartment.

The problem with fire versus either of Yusuke's or Kuwabara's weapons was that while shadow demons disliked any form of light, they needed it to thrive. One could not have a shadow with the absence of light.

And Hiei was well aware of the fact that it took far more fire to kill a shadow demon than it did reiki: the damned creatures' ultimate weakness.

Red eyes glanced back at the fox, whose shaking was slowly subsiding and mutterings already gone. Though he seemed to be recovering, Hiei couldn't count on Kurama in this fight. Thinking it over, it wasn't all that much of a loss.

The Reikai Tentei had learned quickly that against the native population of the Maekai, Kurama had been the one with the weakest offense. None of his plants did any harm to the shadow demons – slicing through nothing but a semi-corporeal form made of darkness alone.

Youki, usually taking the form of manipulation rather than pure energy, was far less efficient in killing the creatures. Kurama had never trained himself in combat using pure energy because it ate at his overall supply far quicker than the plant manipulation that came so naturally. And Reiki, the most effective offense one could have against shadow demons, was barely present in the demon-turned-human's stores.

He'd managed, of course, as the fox always did. But Hiei had stayed close to him (much to Kurama's joy and mutual annoyance) whenever they engaged in a fight as his youki usage drained him far quicker than any of his teammates.

Staring at the door now, with darkness just beginning to creep back around its edges, Hiei had to rethink his original conclusion. Having Kurama in the fight might not be as helpful as having Yusuke or (heaven forbid) the Oaf, but at least he wouldn't be a liability to protect.

With that regret in mind, Hiei raised his fire-lit hand in time for one of the lingering demons to lunge, releasing its unforgettable screech.

-o-o-o-

Kuwabara slid the door shut to another compartment, shocked students still staring at him. Luckily, none of them had been injured. He'd have to go back through the train when this was finished and purify any wounds.

Hopefully, all injuries would be limited to scratches alone.

Spurred at the thought of any of the students being bitten, Kuwabara charged down the train once more, the shadows having retreated from his rather fierce attack. Yes, they ran in fear under the threatening sword of Kazuma Kuwabara!

With gleeful pride and the knowledge that he was, indeed, a man of honor, the orange-haired tentei waved his mighty rei-ken, taking down shadow demons as he went.

Yusuke, having similar success with far less manly thoughts, skidded to a halt as his last spirit bullet pierced through two shadow demons, slamming their already deteriorating forms into the back wall of the train.

Silence reigned for a moment as Yusuke glanced around with a childishly expectant expression, as if challenging more demons to suddenly surround him in an ambush.

When no such thing happened, he glanced back at the wall of the train and gave a smirk. The wooden panels were burnt with the effects of his last gun blast. Briefly wondering if the school would try to charge them for that damage (and gleefully thinking of how he'd send the bill to Koenma if they did) he turned back towards the rest of the train.

Several students were watching him from their compartment doors – though few seemed to have the legs to do so. He supposed an attack of shadow demons would rightly scare them.

It had freaked him out the first time, too.

Wondering in amusement how Kuwabara must be faring and trying to ignore the memories of tediously hunting down every shadow demon that had escaped from the opened Netherworld the last time, he started heading back down the length of the train.

Sneezing in the middle of his attack (throwing him off a bit), Kuwabara took out another shadow demon as he rubbed his nose. Somebody had to be talking about him.

_'Oh, I bet it's my beautiful Yukina!' _ The thought danced across his mind as he raised his sword, a now love-struck man of honor spurred on by his will to return to his true love. His arm, swinging in an arc to bring his rei-ken down upon the screeching demons, faltered as a chill suddenly ran up his spine.

Letting out a strangled gasp, and barely dodging the shadow demon that leapt towards him in his moment of disconcertion, he stumbled back into the cleared hallway. With widened eyes, Kuwabara spun around, ignoring the demons still left to destroy, and started running back the way he had come, a cold and distantly familiar energy raising goose bumps along his arms.

-o-o-o-

Hiei was growing frustrated. With every demon he took down, desperately trying not to burn _everything_ in the compartment, another took its place. His arms were actually growing tired of chucking fireballs and channeling an extremely controlled flame.

Kurama, who seemed to be quite warm now (taking in the sweat dripping from his brow) was still curled in the seat, hands slammed down over his sensitive ears. The fire demon was glad to say, however, that the fox had recovered enough to be aware of the situation around him.

"Hang on, fox," Hiei growled out, having tolerated the limitless attacks of these demons for far too long already. "I'm ending this."

The redhead merely nodded, clamping down tighter on his ears as Hiei summoned yet another ball of swirling fire. With a battle cry worthy of the diminutive demon, the ball burst into a wave of orange light and heat as it shot towards the remaining shadows.

Their dying shrieks were enough to give even Hiei a minor headache as he pulled his flame back, extinguishing the burning curtain over the door's window and the other minor details set aflame in his fight. Kurama slowly lowered his hands, looking exasperatedly up at Hiei.

"I'm sorry," he began, though his voice still gave hint to the shakiness he had displayed earlier. He stood, arms crossing over themselves in a well-hidden gesture of comfort. "I'm better no-"

The softly spoken words halted mid-sentence as emerald eyes widened and hands flew to his throat. Hiei, having felt the same energy waver in and out of existence seconds before Kurama abruptly ended the conversation, spun around and this time drew his sword.

Pale hands wrapped around the fox's slender neck: Kurama's hands gripping at the fingers. Violet eyes peered from behind red locks and the darkness beyond Kurama's body moved and shimmered with effects only created by firelight dancing off of raven strands of hair.

Hiei ground his teeth, perplexed annoyance at the presence of shadow demons long since forgotten, at this newest impossibility and darker threat.

-o-o-o-

Yusuke was almost back to the compartment, delayed by several purifications and the checking of more compartments then he thought a train should possess, when he felt the heat. Flames, too far away to cause injury, sent waves over his face and he covered his eyes from the light that momentarily filled the dark hallway.

"Hiei." He started forward, this time with a little more speed in his movements. As the flames died, sucked back into the compartment he was heading for, he saw another figure running towards him.

Kuwabara was high-tailing it, rei-ken flashing back and forth as he ran. Yusuke, wondering why he hadn't extinguished the weapon, looked behind him to the shadow demons following at an equal pace, though the sly creatures were crawling along the walls and ceiling as well.

Trying not to laugh at the image of Kuwabara running for his life from a mere dozen Maekai demons, Yusuke raised his fist and loaded his shotgun. "Kuwabara, duck!"

The teen, having not been at all focused on the creatures following him nor the raven-haired figure he was quickly approaching, fell to the floor. He was used to following the commands of his teammates without question, but with observation.

Of course, having tripped over his feet and smashed into the floor of the train at just the right time merely gave the impression that he had heeded Yusuke's order.

With a shout from his teammate, darts of blue lit the entire train as they flashed overhead, hitting the demons that jumped at him in his fallen position. As they faded with their dying cries, he scrambled back up, recalling the sword that had vanished as he tripped.

Yusuke's smirk died as his friend leapt up and sprinted the last distance towards the compartment. Now realizing he hadn't been running from any demons, he ran forward as well, having no idea what to expect when he rounded into the compartment just after Kuwabara, but ready for a battle as always.

What he saw, however, killed any thoughts of an immediate fight.

Kurama stood by the window, grasping at hands that wrapped around his throat and a…_pulsing_ Karasu stood behind him. From where he was, Yusuke couldn't hear what the fox was saying; neither could he read lips, but he had a fair idea what the redhead was muttering.

"You're dead. You're dead. I know you're dead, I killed you. You're dead." The mantra seemed to repeat itself as Kurama stood, green eyes closed against the nightmare that seemed to have come back to life behind him.

"And you're as beautiful as ever, my love." Kurama shuddered at the hot breath on his neck and the frosted words that flowed over his ears. His mouth clamped shut; he should never have been saying anything that could be used as a weakness in the first place.

Hiei's hand twitched, the flame residing in his palm flickering and increasing in strength. Karasu retreated somewhat back behind Kurama's form, eyes narrowing against the light, his hands tightening around the fox's neck.

"Don't even think about it, fire demon," he hissed quietly, violet eyes glaring from behind red locks. "Get rid of it."

Glancing at the kitsune, who was regaining his calm exterior, Hiei extinguished the flame with a growl. The compartment was cast in darkness once more, lit only by the moon filtering in over Karasu's shoulder and the orange flickering of Kuwabara's sword.

With the flame gone, the demon stood straighter, no longer hiding behind the form which he held within his hands. Kurama could feel the smirk growing on the crow's face and opened cold, angry eyes.

"Do not think me harmless, Karasu!" Red hair whipped around in a sudden wind as vines grew from the tangled tresses and lashed out at the violet-eyed demon.

A chilling, almost humorless laugh echoed through the room. Kuwabara raised his sword, taking a step forward. Waking from his trance, Yusuke raised his arm, gun poised and ready, in the same offensive stance.

The three tentei had watched as those vines passed harmlessly through the crow demon and though they did not understand it, they all knew what it meant.

"Shadow demon," Hiei hissed out. His grip on his sword, raised before his defensive crouch, was no longer any use in this situation, but he refused to sheath it. Without being able to summon his flame, he would not stand before the threatened fox weaponless.

Kurama's eyes widened at the fire demon's words, comprehension but not true understanding flashing over his features. It vanished, however, to be replaced by a pained grimace as a hand entwined in his hair and ripped the vines from their clutching grasps.

Red strands fell to the floor.

Karasu, one hand still clenching a pale throat, wrapped his free hand around Kurama's waist, delighting in the anger that flared on the faces of the tentei before him. Especially the little fire demon.

"Release him, crow!" Said fire demon, sword shifting ever so slightly into a far more offensive stance, was glaring with enough anger and heat that Karasu was truly surprised he wasn't burning into a pile of ash.

"You've got nowhere to run!" Kuwabara added (Hiei ignoring the annoyance of such), his own sword glinting in the dark room. Yusuke, still having no clue what was going on, could only keep his guard up, ready to fire if the opportunity presented itself.

"Now there's a point," Karasu replied, voice dripping with sarcasm but eyes never once abandoning the cold glare. "But I've got a little fox to help me with that."

"Fuck off."

Karasu merely laughed at the rather desperate words that fought to contain the anger and fear consuming his kitsune. He could feel it coming off of him in waves. Leaning in, he let his semi-corporeal lips brush against Kurama's ear. "All in good time, my love."

"Get off of me; I am not yours to have!" Kurama strained against the hands that held him, his constraints only tightening.

Violet eyes filled with a mixture of amusement and disgust, leaving an ugly expression lingering on his features. "No, you'd rather belong to the little fi-"

Karasu ducked the elbow aimed for his face.

Hiei took a step forward until nails dug into Kurama's neck, droplets of blood summoned to the surface. Cold eyes were once more glaring at the hiyoukai, daring him to come closer.

"I may not have my original body, but I assure you I can still blow a hole through his pretty little throat." The threat forced Hiei's movements to cease. Behind him, Yusuke and Kuwabara equally tensed, expressions mirroring their rage.

Karasu grinned again as he brushed his lips against Kurama's shoulder, moving towards his neck. Violet eyes never left Hiei as the fox tried not to tense but failed as every demonic instinct within him screamed.

The crow was far too close to a vulnerable spot. And it wasn't his throat.

Hiei's eyes, alight with flames and fury, tightened his grip on his sword until the hilt creaked under his whitened knuckles. Behind him, Yusuke's eyes widened at Karasu's positioning, lips parted against the soft flesh where neck met shoulder.

His demon blood immediately identifying all the threats of the crow's intended actions, Yusuke's finger glowed blue, lighting the room with reiki. "Don't you fucking da-"

Time slowed as everything happened at once. The door to the compartment was slammed open. Violet eyes rose to the new intrusion, narrowing at the new threat. Hiei lunged, sword poised. Kurama shouted out. Yusuke ran forward.

Teeth sunk into flesh.

The fox tore himself away from Karasu, ripping sharp canines through tender skin. A black fur-ball pounced from the back of Kurama's shirt, claws outstretched and teeth bared. The kitsune stumbled into Yusuke who wrapped his arms protectively around him and turned away from the crow. Hiei's sword sunk into a shadowy torso. Curses echoed through the room as Bikou was shoved off of a newly clawed-up face and the shadow demon wearing Karasu's features wisped around the katana as smoke around a blade.

"Kill him!" Yusuke shouted even as Hiei summoned a flame in his hand. Karasu's eyes lit with the thrill of a fight and shadowy, writhing fingers clamped down on the wrist that held the flickering fire.

"Shrimp!" Kuwabara started forward even as an explosion ripped through the compartment. Hiei gritted his teeth, falling to one knee as he brought his sword up once more, slicing through the ethereal arm.

"Lumos!" The compartment was lit by a blinding light and Hiei had to shield his eyes, flame vanquished. Yusuke covered Kurama as shrieks filled the compartment.

When the light faded, the four tentei remained – Hiei crouched by the window, sword still poised for attack: Yusuke holding Kurama, back pressed to the edge of the seat: Kuwabara standing, sword flickering as he stared in horror at the lack of Karasu.

Harry, wand out and tip still glowing with the spell, stood in the doorway with Ron and Luna beside him. Yusuke glanced at them before searching the place where Karasu should have been. He cursed loudly – vividly. The translator didn't capture half of it.

"He's gone." Kuwabara's words, seemingly hollow, drew the attention of the newly arrived wizards.

"You said light hurts them. Of course he's gone," Ron stated, looking back to where the creepy, dark haired thing had been. It had _moved_ like the other monsters, but this one had the features of a pale, violet-eyed man with more cruelty in his eyes than Luscious Malfoy on a bad day.

"Light hurts them, it doesn't kill them," Kuwabara reiterated, still speaking as if he was numb. "Fuck, he's still out there."

"What's going on?" Harry asked, looking between them. "At least that thing is gone."

Hiei sheathed his sword with the "Hn" to which Harry had become accustomed. Blood flowed down his left forearm from the gory wound blasted into his skin. Turning back around to face them, he walked over to Yusuke and prodded him aside, bending down before Kurama.

Yusuke, knowing the fire demon would be of far more help to the fox than he could be, relinquished his hold. Kurama was sitting on the floor, one arm across his bent knees, the other clamping down on the junction of his neck and shoulder. Blood ran between his fingers and down his chest, soaked up by his shirt.

Hiei, eyes focused only on the fox before him, reached out to pull his hand away. Kurama hissed – something feral and nearly demonic – as he scrambled back from the fire demon's outstretched fingers.

"Don't touch it!"

Harry took a step back, bumping into Ron, at the venomous words spat from such a previously gentle guy. Ron gripped his arm, fingers digging into the skin and the scarred wizard didn't have to see his best friend's face to know the expression there.

Shock. Fear. Incomprehension. He was wearing the same expression, after all.

Hiei remained unfazed by the animalistic defense to which Kurama had resorted. This was very much a bestial matter most easily dealt with using defense mechanisms. And Kurama's was known as Youko.

Knowing that an injured animal is most uncomfortable when surrounded, Hiei turned to the others. "Return to your seats," he said rather politically, keeping a neutral expression over his features. He pointed to Harry. "You, go tell the driver of this thing what's happened."

"There isn't a conductor," Luna cut in airily. Of all of them, including the tentei, she seemed the least shaken up by the events. But then again, she never was.

Hiei growled, the first signs of his so-called calm breaking in lieu of frustration. "Then go and tell whoever's in charge."

Harry glanced to Ron. "The Prefects are. Er…" He thumbed to a pale redhead who was realizing the responsibility he was about to handle. "Him."

Even in Harry's words, the shortest boy's expression at this newest development could be called nothing but deadpan.

"You've got to be kidding me." A thin eyebrow twitched above red eyes growing more impatient by the second. "Detective, go with one of them and explain."

Yusuke, surprised at the sudden attention brought to him, stumbled. "Explain _what_?"

"That there was a demonic attack." The soft voice, having regained its calm exterior and expressionless quality, drew their attention back to the injured redhead sitting against the edge of the compartment seat. "Tell the students it was merely preliminary and should not repeat."

"Demons?" Harry and Ron shared a worried look. It couldn't mean that Voldemort had actually…

Yusuke stared at Kurama, not exactly sure what to say to that. Weren't they supposed to be forgetting stuff like this? And besides, there were more important things to deal with right now than a cover and clean up. "But…_Kurama_."

The redhead, always perceptive even in times of pain or stress, seemed to know what he was thinking. Green eyes locked with his, a certain human aspect back in them and Yusuke knew that the act was once more on and so he should play along. "You remember demons, don't you Yusuke?"

With all eyes trained on him now, save for a red pair still observing a certain fox, Yusuke could only nod and rub the back of his neck in confusion, self-consciousness, and complete and utter uncertainty for where this whole thing was going.

"Well…I mean…it's kind of hard not to."

Kurama nodded at his successful reply. Their cover was still in place now with one traumatic event and a whole lot more memory.

"Please go and keep any of the students from becoming frightened or chaotic," he continued, internally glad that Hermione was not present. He didn't have the patience or the strength to further detail the newest aspect to their cover-up.

Yusuke was still staring at him with that pitying look of uncertainty. Kurama tried not to grind his teeth. He didn't need pity. He didn't need them around him right now.

Hiei, sensing all of it, turned to Yusuke with a glare that demanded obedience. With a slow nod, the detective stood. He understood that Kurama needed space – time – and that the best thing he could do was get everyone else out of the way.

"I'll go with you," Kuwabara offered, not stupid enough to miss the waves of _'leave us the hell alone'_ that Hiei was projecting. "You know…in case any more…uh…demons are left."

Yusuke absently nodded, turning towards the three wizards and starting to usher them out of the compartment. Ron and Luna moved into the hall but Harry didn't budge.

"Come on, Potter, let's get you back to your seat," Yusuke tried somewhat reasonably to request rather than order.

Harry still didn't move. "But Kurama is-"

Hiei's harsh words cut him off. "Thank you for your help, now GO!"

Ron grabbed his friend by the elbow and pulled him away from the door. "Come on, mate. I think we should go check up on Neville and 'Mione."

Harry reluctantly let himself be pulled away as Kuwabara followed. Yusuke paused at the door. "We'll be back."

"No." Hiei's single word caused Yusuke to turn once more, eyebrows raised. "Go with them and stay with them."

Kuwabara frowned. "But the compartments don't hold seven," he whined.

Yusuke winced as Hiei gnashed his teeth; he could almost hear them grating back and forth. The fire demon practically spat fire with his reply, "Make it work."

It was the raven-haired detective's turn to pull his best friend away from a potentially deadly situation. "Come on, let's get these guys back to their seats and then we'll split up with these Prefit people."

He slid the door shut behind him, leaving Hiei and Kurama alone in the compartment filled with the scents of charcoaled decorations and dripping blood. At the very glance of red eyes to his new wound, Kurama's hand tightened its already white-knuckled clamp.

The fire demon sighed, sitting down beside him and leaning against the edge of the bench, noting just how uncomfortable it was. "Fox, we've got to clean it."

"Like that will help." The words were curt – harsh. After a moment of silence, the fox gave a relenting sigh, knowing he had no right to speak to Hiei in such a way. "I will clean it myself."

An exasperated eyebrow rose at such a suggestion. "You and I both know doing so is asking for an infection."

Still, Kurama remained stubborn and repeated his words through clenched teeth, "I will do it myself."

Another round of silence kept the nearly empty room company as the two companions sat side by side on the floor, unmoving. After what he deemed to be a good amount of time, Hiei sat up, returning to his kneeling position beside the fox.

"Kurama," he began, catching the kitsune's gaze by the use of his name alone. Red eyes softened as much as they knew how and he put his hand atop Kurama's, the blood flow slowing but still tainting small, pale fingers with the red liquid. "I am not one to judge."

Green eyes darted back and forth, searching red depths for something for which neither could find words. Whatever it was, Kurama eventually found it or acquiesced to the knowledge that it was there, even if he couldn't see it. Slowly, his hand pulled away from the torn flesh.

Without another word, Hiei set to cleaning the wound, knowing he would need Yusuke or Kuwabara later to purify it with reiki. For now, however, he could stop the bleeding and bind it, at least giving the fox some sort of peace of mind.

As the minutes passed while Hiei tore his cloak into strips of cloth suitable for bandages, he kept a careful gaze on Kurama. The fox's eyes remained downcast and never once did he lift them. The submissive form was unheard of from the proud fox and Hiei's worry increased.

He left the kitsune's side to dig through Yusuke's bag for the bottle of water he knew he kept there even as he instructed Kurama to strip off his shirt. When he returned to the fox's side, pouring water over the wounded area, the redhead's eyes were still on the floor.

Growing tired of waiting for him to speak first, he prompted the kitsune. "Kurama?"

The questioning tone, laced with impatience towards the fox's actions, was clear enough in Kurama's mind. Though emotionless in response, his features betrayed his own pain and loathing. "Don't pretend you aren't disgusted."

At Hiei's slightly widened eyes – a further prompt to explain himself, Kurama let out a bitter snort. However, it faded away into nothing more than a quietly whispered response, "I no longer belong to myself."

Anger flared in Hiei's eyes and when his glare was not seen by a lowered green gaze he resorted to a more catching tactic. Kurama yelped in pain when fingers dug into the torn flesh of his shoulder, causing the stemmed flow of blood to begin anew.

Wide, surprised eyes once more darted back and forth between the fierce and clearly furious irises so close to him.

"Do not patronize me, Kurama." Those eyes only widened further, entranced by the anger Hiei was radiating. "We are allies – more than allies, fox. I owe you for many things and am not so callous as to turn away when you are in need. Not for something so trivial. Marks fade."

The fox could only stare at him. Just as Hiei was beginning to grow uncomfortable with the silent, unreadable gaze, Kurama suddenly lunged forward, wrapping his arms around the surprised (and quickly tensing) fire demon.

After the brief delay it took to figure out just what the fox was doing, Hiei slowly relaxed and awkwardly returned the hug. Ten seconds later, he decided it was far too awkward. "All right, get off me already, fox."

His gruff, annoyed demand only made Kurama laugh lightly. He pulled back and leaned once more against the bench, exposing the wound for Hiei's healing. His eyes traced the ceiling, no longer lingering on the floor.

The rest of the wrapping happened in contented silence, leaving a bandaged fox to pick his shirt back up off the floor and slide it over his head. Hiei sat against the opposite bench, wiping his blood-covered hands on his pants.

As he watched Kurama's fingers slide over the black bandages he had procured, his eyes grew serious. "It will scar, Kurama. There's nothing I can do about it."

The bitter, humorless laugh that followed caused that swirling worry to return to Hiei's stomach. "I never expected you to be able to heal it. If it didn't scar, it wouldn't serve its purpose."

His voice very nearly broke at the end of his sentence and he turned away, staring out the window and seeing nothing but passing stars and dim clouds. Kurama's pride was taking a heavy beating by the turn of events and it took all of his self-control to keep from breaking everything in the compartment.

Youko's rage, indescribable beyond the word _ferocity_, filled all of the kitsune. Nothing of his human aspect could calm the demon within him at the knowledge of being claimed.

And being claimed by not only someone who wasn't Hiei, but by that damned _crow_. Who was supposed to be **DEAD**.

The very thought of being owned by…_that_ had his demonic side shaking in anger and his human side shaking in fear. Part of him, the very human part, wanted to request Hiei's protection – even go so far as to bind them in a contract. But the other part, the part that was screaming its rage and banging against every internal wall he had erected, would not allow it. He knew how weak it would make him appear in front of the fire demon, and he would be damned before he allowed himself to be lowered any further.

Hiei mistook half of the fox's internal dilemma as being wholly about the deceased bird recently revisited. "The crow is dead, Kurama."

When he replied, the fox's voice had deepened, leaking out some of Youko's rage. "Obviously he isn't or _this_," the hand had clamped back onto the now-bandaged wound, "would be nothing more than a healing scratch!"

The fire demon was, again, unfazed by Kurama's heated words, though he did not like the slowly rising volume. "That was not Karasu. His body was a shadow demon."

Green eyes closed and for the first time that evening, Kurama looked like the tired, worn fox he was. "Impossible. Shadow demons can't shape shift." His head turned to the side, once more taking in the night sky beyond glass confines as he opened his eyes. "Besides, even if they could…I know that energy. I _remember_ that energy."

Hiei knew the fox before him well enough to translate what his words had meant. _I could never forget that energy._

The silence that followed was broken by a small, wheezing sound far to close to a meow for comfort. Kurama looked down as Bikou landed in his lap. He glanced around the compartment, wondering where the shadow demon had been.

He vaguely remembered Karasu clawing at the little guy after he'd become attached to his face.

"Good boy," Kurama murmured, running his fingers down the odd body of the shadow demon.

Hiei, watching the thing with distrust, decided it was time for a tactical change in subject, considering he was getting nowhere with the current one and possibly aggravating the fox further. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the bench.

"Why did the shadow demons show up here? They shouldn't be out of the Netherworld."

Kurama had no response to his inquiry for several moments, indicating that he had given it thought but had no solution to speak of at present. "We sealed them away," was his only reply and one that gave no answers.

Another bout of silence filled the room, not awkward per se but not comfortable either. Kurama tilted his head to the side, taking Hiei in as if he were solving a question asked about the fire demon rather than the kage youkai that had flooded the train not so long ago.

"Could someone have broken the seal?" He knew the answer before he asked it, but the fox felt the need for their conversation to continue. There had to be something they were missing.

Hiei snorted. "Even with all my doubts about the pacifier-sucking toddler we report to, I doubt anyone could break his seal."

Kurama smiled, holding back the laugh at the mixture of praise and insult delivered in one breath. "Agreed. And I do not know of any wizard capable of summoning Netherworld guards."

Hiei, with his head tilted back, looked down his nose at Kurama and the pur-wheezing pet in his arms. "Even if they could, why did they come _here?_"

A wry smile was his only reply and it took a snort and the lifting of his head to look levelly at the fox before he finally answered, "We did kill their lord and three gods."

Hiei frowned. He didn't like that answer at all.

-o-o-o-

Yusuke knelt down in front of Neville, trying to give his most comforting smile (which really was a smirk). "Longbottom, was it?" The boy nodded, chewing on his bottom lip and never once looking away from the oozing set of cuts.

Yusuke couldn't blame him. "Give me your arm – Yeah, the scratched one. Relax, I'm not going to do anything."

Kuwabara, standing behind him and looking at the same cut from over his shoulder, shook his head slightly. "You're going to have to if that's a shadow scratch."

The detective tried not to get angry as his attempts to calm the boy were relatively smashed by the idiot behind him. Still, he ignored the questioning looks of the others, and Neville's newfound uncertainty, and looked to the cut instead.

"Fuck…" He hardly needed to observe the wound at all to say it was given by a kage youkai. Yusuke looked up into the frightened eyes of the human boy. "Neville, I have to purify your arm."

"Wh-What's that mean?" he asked, positively shaking from head to toe but trying to swallow that fear.

Kuwabara, leaning over them now, stared down at the cut. "He'll infuse _reiki_ into the cut to cancel out the spreading _youki_."

Somehow, Yusuke was really glad those words hadn't translated properly, leaving a fuzzy, almost static-radio sound to Kuwabara's voice as he spoke.

"What?" Ron, ever the elegant one with words, broke the confused silence.

Hermione wrung her hands slightly: annoyed she couldn't help, irritated at not knowing what was going on, and worried about Neville's seemingly serious condition. "Your words didn't translat-"

Yusuke waved her off, much to her indignation. "Yes, yes, we know." He looked back to Neville, waiting until he had caught the boy's eyes with his own before continuing slowly. "It won't hurt or anything – might feel a tingle and maybe that pins and needles sensation. More than anything it's like…cleaning a cut with alcohol."

Those muggle-born in the compartment clearly understood his reference. Neville, however, did not.

"Alcohol?" he repeated vaguely, getting a bad feeling about all of this.

"He's just gonna' clean it, Neville," Harry cut in, trying to be helpful and calm their very nervous friend. The boy understood that part; he just didn't understand what it entailed.

"You're still not explaining what you were talking about," Hermione pushed, crossing her arms in all her knowledgeable glory. "I highly doubt those words meant rubbing alcohol."

Yusuke laughed, recalling the earlier conversation they had had involving Tourny fights. "No, only Chuu's _reiki_ means alcohol. But he's a wicked match when he's drunk." Lifting up Neville's hand, he placed his own over the cuts, hovering above the broken skin.

"Anyways, _reiki_," he continued, pronouncing the word slowly, "has to be used because this isn't a normal cut."

"It was made by a shadow demon," Kuwabara continued.

"A demon?" Hermione echoed, eyes widening. Harry and Ron hadn't had a chance to clue her in on everything that had happened in the other compartment, including the newest development in Voldemort's apparent plan.

"Of course," she muttered, pacing slightly in the very cramped space. "It all makes perfect sense – the descriptions in books and that thing that attacked us-"

Yusuke coughed lightly, causing the girl to blush and apologize quickly. Neville, clearly not being calmed by any of this, was trying to subtly pull his arm back.

He was failing miserably.

"It's not just any demon," Kuwabara corrected Hermione's simplification of what they had said. "It's a shadow demon. They….well…they uh…"

His friend and leader took over, not resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "A scratch from a shadow demon will kill the surrounding area of that scratch." Having never forgotten Koenma's words from so long ago, Yusuke let them flow from his mind without much thought. "Then it'll spread until your body can't handle the amount of dead material or limbs and your body will die…or the infected area is amputated."

Neville turned a lovely shade green.

"Which," Kuwabara continued immediately, seeing that all-too-familiar color on Neville's face (his had taken on the same appearance when Koenma informed a very scratched up Reikai Tentei of these circumstances), "is why Yusuke is going to purify your arm so that doesn't happen."

"Blimey," a pale Ron interjected, numbly sitting on one of the compartment seats. "And…he'll be alright after this?"

Yusuke nodded, spirit energy gathering into his palm. "Perfectly fine with not so much as a scratch. We just don't want the infection to spread so we're going to fix it. Hold still, Longbottom."

The others watched as a soft, almost imperceptible light filled the room. Kuwabara, with a much more acute sixth sense and trained eyes, saw the bright blue energy clearly. What he missed, however, was Luna's now clear eyes focused solely on Yusuke's lit palm and the bright blue reflected in her glazed pupils.

The light slowly faded and Yusuke pulled back his hand, releasing Neville's arm. The skin was healed, as if no cut had ever marred it in the first place. "All good."

Fascinated, the boy stared at his own arm, wiggling his fingers even as a smile broke out over his face. "That didn't even hurt!"

"Told you it wouldn't." Yusuke stood up, a smirk on his features. It died however, as Luna's voice rose over Hermione and Ron immediately moving in to question Neville.

"What about the redhead?"

Silence filled the compartment at the question and both Yusuke and Kuwabara turned to the blonde girl.

"What?" Kuwabara asked, a defensiveness in his voice that wasn't there before.

"Your friend," the girl reiterated, glancing between the two with her glossy look back in her eyes. "The one that was bitten."

Hermione cast Harry and Ron incredulous, almost angry looks at being left out of the loop. Ron just rolled his eyes, not exactly thrilled at what he called the frizzy-haired girl's 'obsession.'

Yusuke and Kuwabara shared a frown before the former turned back to Luna. "We don't really know if that was a shadow demon."

The golden witch of their generation chewed on the inside of her lip in apprehension. "And if it was?"

Harry tried to ignore Ron's sputtered indignation.

Yusuke frowned further and the three got the impression that he didn't like the idea at all. "Hiei will do what he can for Kurama." Wincing as he realized how final those words sounded, he quickly added, "He'll do what we did for Neville."

"Hmm…" the blonde girl, now starting to get on Yusuke's nerves, let her gaze drift. "I would have thought a bite would be worse."

The lead detective paled, unable to keep his eyes on the girl any longer when she was so spot on. Memories of fights long since passed fluttered across his mind.

_He punched the ground, sending wood chips flying as he broke through the tatami mat and the wooden panels beneath. "Why isn't it working!"_

_Kuwabara, gripping the bleeding wound on his arm, hissed as the skin around the teeth marks began paling, fading to an ashen grey._

_Both boys turned as a pop sounded through the air and Koenma stood before them, amber eyes serious. "Because a bite isn't like a scratch, Yusuke."_

"And…why would you think that?" Kuwabara's words pulled Yusuke back from the realm of memory. The orange-haired boy glanced at his friend.

Luna's eyes slid back over to them, strangely focused even as she blinked owlishly. "Biting is territorial in all species, is it not?"

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 10_

End

-o-o-o-

Bet you guys weren't expecting that one! ;D I'm happy to see that many of you thought Dementors were going to attack the train. I was hoping I was successful in leading everyone on a bit.

Hope it was good and any confusion can be answered with an e-mail, a PM, or in following chapters (hopefully!)

**Author's Notes:**

…_Shadow demons flocked to…food and darkness… Hiei and Kurama were the best source of both… _Shadow demons feed on flesh but are drawn to energy, which is why they would sooner go after Hiei and Kurama than any of the other filled compartments. Plus they're quick learners: they'd figure out that neither had sticks to hurt them with blinding light.

…_Yusuke was really glad those words hadn't translated properly…_The translation charm is a weak substitute for the translation devices I should have had the tentei get removed/put on before the whole train fight since writing Yusuke and Kuwabara out of their normal speech patterns is annoying and difficult to catch.

Anyways (there's my little blooper rant for you) the spells weren't able to catch multi-word meaning. As Kuwabara thought _energy from a demon world demon_ and _energy from a netherworld demon_, the translation charm wasn't able to pick apart the Japanese word he used and just skipped over the translation (technical malfunction). The spells obviously aren't perfect.

_Karasu's Appearance_: And now you all know my confidence issue! I worried about putting in this aspect of the story (an aspect thought up and written down more than three years ago, now) as an amazing amount of HP stories have Karasu coming back (which really doesn't make sense to me, since the HP world is specifically a No-Dead-Coming-Back zone).

So obviously, this isn't your typical Karasu's back story. Please hang with me (he won't make many appearances, anyways) because this has to do with an intricate plot that simply starts with him.

_Cover-Up_: Ah-ha! As SlashnYaoi pointed out in a review (good job – kudos to you and Bonus Points!) there's their traumatic event. Not what Kurama was planning, I'm sure, but it worked all the same. Their memories are 'back.'

**End Author Notes**:

And thanks to **KyoHana** for again not only beta-ing but building my confidence back up.

Thanks for reading, have a great day (night?) and please review!


	12. Interrogating the Tricky

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything! (and even I did, I wouldn't tell _you!_)

**Notes**: Sorry for the delay. College equals Pain in my Free Time. Unfortunately I'm not seeing it change anytime in the next four years. So updates are going to be sparse, but as soon as possible. Please hang with me!

The good news for the next three months: summer time. I'm not promising anything, but updates should get a little better!

**Warnings**: None right now!

**Thanks**: to Kyohana for beta-ing! (and the ever loved confidence boost you give)

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 11_

Interrogating the Tricky

**-o-o-o-**

"No, really, I'm just going to tell them to change!" Yusuke gave a weak smile, both hands raised in a manner of surrender. "I'll be right back, I promise!"

With that, the compartment door was slammed shut on three very inquisitive wizards (well, two wizards and one witch, that is). The leader of the Reikai Tentai let out a relieved sigh as he started down the hallway. They were sweet kids, really, but they had a heroism that could rival Kuwabara's – and they were damn nosy!

Rubbing the back of his head, fingers teasing the hair on his nape, he rapped his knuckles sharply on the door of his destination. It slid open after a moment, revealing Hiei in all his 'normalcy': distrusting glare, tense stance, and offensive position. Yep, the fire demon was back.

Now to find out about the fox.

"Hey guys," Yusuke pushed into the room as the hiyoukai stepped aside (he'd been blocking his leader's way inside since opening the door). Hiei sat back down on the bench beside Kurama, immediately crossing his arms and closing his eyes. It was the classic symbol of 'I'm listening but don't care enough to give you the attention.' "Came to tell you the train should be slowing down soon. We're almost there."

As he spoke, brown eyes glanced up and down the redheaded occupant of the room. Kurama's cool had returned as well; he sat with loosely crossed arms, calculating green eyes, and was, for all exterior appearances, normal. Hiei had gotten him fresh clothing, apparently, as the collared white dress shirt he wore now did a good job of hiding the bandage on his shoulder.

"And to check on us, I'm sure." The gentle smile wasn't missed, relaxing Yusuke's tense form.

"Yeah, well, I hear it's part of the leader's job description." With a smirk, the raven-haired hanyou gave a half shrug. Kurama nodded in reply. "I actually came to talk to you about the shadow demons."

Although neither demon flinched nor showed any change in expression, the tension in the room seemed to thicken, misting between its occupants. Yusuke had a feeling that neither of his companions would start the conversation, so he began with the theory he had been postulating on his own. "You think we should ditch the toothy fur ball?"

Kurama blinked at this, obviously not expecting the statement. It took him a moment to associate it with recent events. "You think Tail did this?"

Yusuke settled a long stare on the redhead, trying to convey how much he had thought this out and the need to give his opinion due consideration. His very desire to be taken seriously was all that was keeping him from snorting at Bikou's English name. He really did hate that thing. "There are only two ways I know for a shadow demon to appear on earth. One: a portal small enough to breach Koenma's seal; and two: someone broke that seal. And considering I really don't want to deal with someone that strong again right now, I'm going with the first option."

"You're correct, Yusuke," Kurama said softly, their gazes steady on one another. "But for that many shadow demons to appear in one place, the portal would have to be substantial…or they've been slipping through an unnoticeable tear for _decades_."

"Well, we don't know how long that thing was in that shop, and even before that-"

"Yusuke, you know as well as I do that shadow demons don't congregate spontaneously. They don't gather at all unless there's food or a netherworld demon controlling them." Kurama was rather proud of Yusuke for having giving the situation serious thought. It wasn't that he thought the boy incapable, but that he felt Yusuke more 'unmotivated' to do so. Unless he was in a fight, Yusuke left the thinking up to Kurama, preferring instead to rely on his gut instinct.

With a sigh, the dark-haired boy merely nodded, coming to sit beside them and reaching forward, knowing he had permission when Kurama didn't immediately cut off his arm. "Alright, I know, I know." He seemed to deflate momentarily as he placed his hand over the bandage on Kurama's shoulder (the fox winced, his complexion paling slightly, but he showed no other outward change in expression). He began pouring his reikei into the cut, purifying it, before glancing back up. "But shadow demons are the only thing that can open portals to the Netherworld." The detective ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "What if that thing just-"

"How do you explain the shape-shifting?" Hiei's interruption brought both gazes to him. His eyes, however, remained closed.

"He has a point, Yusuke. Even if a normal shadow demon like Tail opened the portal, shadow demons don't take form." Kurama kept his gaze even, but the detective thought he saw the bitterness Kurama was working hard to keep out of his voice and eyes. Yusuke decided he didn't want to remain on this particular topic for much longer as he pulled away and gave a light shrug.

"Well…what if they got better?"

A laugh broke through the air, relaxing some of the tension that had been growing within the cabin once more. Kurama buttoned his shirt back up, securely covering the bandage once more. "Tactics and genetics are two very different things, unfortunately, and only one can be improved upon. Don't be too disappointed though." The gleam in his eyes caught Yusuke's attention. "Shadow demons should attract Koenma's attention."

Brown eyes widened in realization. "You mean we're going home?"

Kurama smirked and gave a small nod. It wasn't completely true, though. "Maybe," he amended, not wanting to get the boy's hopes up. "If Koenma looks hard enough, he's bound to find us."

Yusuke fisted the air. "Sweet! We're going home!"

Apparently, the detective's hopes climbed quickly.

-o-o-o-

As the train jerked to a final stop, compartments filled with students eager to disembark, Harry realized he was apprehensive about returning to Hogwarts. It wasn't nerves – this was his home and he had always been happy to return. No, it wasn't that he was unhappy, but he was…worried.

In his gut, he knew things weren't right; something was going to happen this year. Something that would change everything.

He frowned at the ambiguous quality of his thoughts (in what year hadn't something happened that ended up changing everything?). Harry stepped off the train behind Neville, whose tendency to look at his once-wounded arm every few seconds sent him tripping down the stairs. Luckily, Luna was there to catch and right him.

The scene on the Hogwarts platform was a sight to see, though for most returning students it was reminiscent of a distant, unpleasant memory. Teachers crowded the area, already directing the students. Harry could spot the Aurors among them, pulling some students aside for brief interrogations.

It was just like their arrival after the dementor attack. And just like then, the children were oddly hushed, whispering quietly to one another about the shadows and the two boys who seemed to go gun-ho on them (Kuwabara and Yusuke were being called everything from saviors to the very reason behind the anomaly).

The presence of the Aurors reminded the Boy Who Lived of the fact that five more were supposedly hidden among the incoming children: foreign exchange students, as per Dumbledore's plan. Green eyes scanned over the sea of people, wondering which ones were really adults, transfigured by genetic magic to look just like the rest of the platform's occupants.

Harry turned as a loud voice carried over the crowd. Kuwabara had just stepped from the train and already two aurors were on either side of him, grabbing him by the elbow. Briefly, the wizard teen wondered if the tallest of their guests would do what he did to the shadows – he seemed quite able to take care of himself against those monsters.

_Demons_.

The Boy Who Lived suddenly couldn't move. He stood frozen in his tracks, oblivious as Ron and Hermione turned to him, confusion in their expressions. The rest of the crowd was pushing their way off the wooden platforms and to the carriages lined up along the path to Hogwarts, many of them looking back at the owner of the obnoxious voice still shouting out in protest. Many whispering.

He had dreamed of demons.

How had he not thought of it on the train? Those things…Yusuke and Kuwabara had called them demons. How would they know have known what they were unless they had been around them before. His recent dreams came rushing back to him.

Four stones – the Markers of the Four Worlds: a means to summon messengers - _demons_.

Harry watched, still rooted to the ground, as the Ministry's magical spies hauled Kuwabara away from the crowd and out of site. Yusuke was following, obviously angry at being pushed around and barely keeping himself from retaliating (after just two weeks with the boy, Harry knew well enough that he had authority issues). Kurama and Hiei were escorted away as well, both in silence (though the latter was visibly fuming: Harry could see that even from his distance).

They all knew about the demons. Had Harry been right in his first assumption – could these boys (four people he would almost consider friends at this point) be the demons he had warned Dumbledore about? The demons Voldemort was trying to get on his side?

Were they already on his side?

"Harry?" His brain registered Ron's voice but not his words. "You alright, mate?"

He turned as his mind slowly processed what his ears were hearing, nodding after several minutes. "I need to talk to you guys." He looked around, spotting the carriages already heading for the castle. He gestured to them with his head. "In the carriages. C'mon."

As the three loaded into the carriage, Hermione sending Harry questioning glances, Neville and Luna climbed aboard as well. An awkward silence filtered between them before Neville nervously began talking about the attack, nervously, obviously trying to fill the silence.

Their discussion would have to wait.

-o-o-

Kuwabara was not entirely sure what was happening. For the second time in a month, he was being hauled off by people in weird cloaks for a purpose unknown to him. Personally, he was really starting to dislike England. In Japan, he was never whisked off by people he didn't know or threatened to be cooked in some sort of stew made by cult freaks. It was really starting to piss him off.

However, whoever it was that had grabbed his arms as he stepped off the train was in luck; he was too confused to contemplate kicking their asses.

The thought might have developed eventually if he hadn't been further distracted by a distant tingle in the middle of his brain. It formed a twitching sensation deep in his sinuses, traveling down through his nose and along the roof of his mouth.

He sneezed.

'_Can both of you hear me?_

Kuwabara frowned curiously – he had never heard Kurama's voice in his head before. He'd thought that was because Hiei was the only one who could communicate that way. "Kurama?" The two men holding onto him, now dragging him to a tent set up just before the dense forest took over the land they were on (and a distance from the disembarking children), looked to him oddly.

He almost cursed his forgetfulness and tried again, the correct way. _'Kurama?'_

'_I hear ya._'

Kuwabara was surprised to hear Yusuke's voice in his head as well. _'What's going on?'_ The orange-haired teen tried to look over his shoulder at his three teammates, all being similarly escorted to the enclosed tent.

'_There isn't time to explain, so think of it as a four-way call on a phone,' _Kurama's voice continued and Kuwabara merely nodded. Hiei must have been the one who hooked up a connection between their four minds. _'These men are going to question us and we all need to be on the same page, so listen up and don't interrupt._

'_They're going to ask about the demons and how we handled them. We remember everything now, due to the demonic attack. We are four students from Japan under an Eastern Master – do __**not**__ mention Genkai's name. If asked, our teacher went by the name Kenbo-'_

'_Come on, Kurama, any idiot's going to figure that out. I mean, 'wise mother?' Really?' _Kuwabara had to agree with Yusuke but wisely said nothing. Kurama had said not to interrupt and he didn't like people not doing as he instructed.

'_Let me finish, Yusuke._' The snippy words weren't necessarily angry, but urgent. Kuwabara could practically feel Yusuke snap his mouth shut. '_We study together under Kenbo – a masked fighter of whom no one knows the true identity. The four of us were accepted as her students after displaying strong spiritual awareness. Yusuke, Kuwabara, you were both fourteen. I was fifteen. Hiei, you were nine.'_

Kuwabara couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him (his captors gave him another weird look as they pulled back the canvas flap of the tent). _'The shrimp's a little kid!'_

Kuwabara cried out as a pulse echoed through his head and he found himself with a weak headache. Through their connection, he could feel the damn fire demon's smugness.

'_Now then,' _despite the lack of pause in Kurama's voice, the irritation was there, '_we know of demons because we trained to fight against them in Japan, where the barrier between worlds is weakest. They are common to us and so we knew what they were immediately and the best way to defeat them._

'_For now, leave out that they are Shadow Demons – simply maintain that you identified them as dangerous demons and eliminated them as trained. Leave out Koenma's name and anything having to do with the Spirit world. We do not know why Voldemort summoned us or anything about the spell or magic he used.'_

Kuwabara thought that part would be the easiest. He could remember to tell the truth; that wasn't hard.

'_Other than that, people we know and things we do – our daily activities of school and visiting the temple where Master Kenbo lives – you are free to mention. Do you both understand?'_

Kuwabara sent his confirmation through their mental link as Yusuke confirmed as well. The momentary silence gave Kuwabara a chance to glance around as he was pulled to the back of the tent. There were several tables set up in various locations among the tents. He was being escorted to one near the back, where two more cloaked men were standing, watching his approach.

The others were being taken to the various tables.

'_So…how old is Hiei now?" _His question, asked without really realizing he was thinking it, received an annoyed sensation distinctly coming from Hiei. He flinched, decidedly tightening his control on his thoughts, lest the Shrimp kill him for a poorly thought out question.

Kurama sighed, _'Fourteen.'_

'_Why the hell do I have to be a ningen child?' _Apparently, the Shrimp was sick of the age comments already.

Before Kurama could give a calm and reasonable explanation, Yusuke did what he always did: jumped in and made things worse. _'Because with those baby cheeks, no human would ever believe you were a day over twelve!'_

A pained and annoyed "Ow!" burst out from the table to the left of the tent. Apparently, Yusuke now had a headache too.

-o-o-o-

Dumbledore walked briskly through the scattered students. There were few of them left, the first years having already left with Hagrid leading the way to the boats. The remaining students lingered around the carriages as they pulled up one by one, waiting to be loaded.

Beside him, the ends of her robes occasionally tangling with his in their fast paced steps, McGonagall's face was at its most severe. Their newest guests – four boys of which only the Order were truly aware – were now being interrogated by the Ministry. And these four boys, one possibly a demon, had supposedly blown up half the train (or so the messenger owl's hastily scribbled note vaguely stated).

Dumbledore supposed – with a hint of amusement in his smile – that there was reason to be stern and serious. This was, after all, a very serious matter.

An Auror standing guard at the entrance of the tent (really nothing more than a man at the ready with nothing else to do) pulled back the flap to let Dumbledore through. He gave a cheerful smile and a nod towards the man (Cudney. Alcott Cudney – that was his name. Good man. His wife made the most delicious lemon tea.) and entered the Ministry tent.

The first thing he heard (something that was hard not to hear) was Yusuke Urameshi's rather loud and clearly unhappy voice. With a benign smile similar to the one he gave Alcott (although, granted, this was more a calming smile than a cheery greeting smile. Surely, one must understand, the latter wasn't as appropriate in this situation.), he made his way over to the desk where the Japanese boy sat, glaring angrily at the Auror across from him.

"Good day, John," Dumbledore spoke up, coming to stand at the end of the table. Both sets of eyes at the table looked towards him, Yusuke with some form of annoyed relief and John Dawlish with a mix of respectful resentment.

"Dumbledore," the man greeted back with a nod of his head. "I presume you know this young man?"

The old headmaster turned to look at Yusuke, glancing up and down and pausing, as if truly trying to remember. He was gifted with a glare in return. With a light chuckle, he nodded to the Auror. "Why, yes, I do. Young Mister Urameshi has been staying with me, as well as several other teachers in order to prepare him for his upcoming term at Hogwarts. He and a few others– some of whom I see are here, as well– have been given the great honor of being our first exchange students in more than a century- well, prior to the Tournament, of course!"

Dawlish stared at the headmaster for some time, his already tough appearance only deepening as he tried to read what lay beyond those half-moon spectacles. He failed, however, and turned away with a slight grumpiness to his composure. "Why hasn't the ministry been informed of this, Dumbledore?"

The Headmaster appeared confused, even flustered. "Why, I sent a letter to Rufus several weeks ago, outlining the details of our newest project!"

"Besides," McGonagall suddenly spoke up, having resided beside, but slightly behind the Headmaster, "I was under the impression that the rights to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly were returned solely to the Headmaster with no further interference from the Ministry."

Dumbledore glanced to his left, giving a nod (which to most people looked like an encouraging gesture, almost a 'thumbs up' if you will) and continued where his second-in-command had stopped. "Should I be reporting my decisions as Headmaster once more?"

The Ministry employee seemed caught off guard and frustrated by that fact… rather like a mouse cornered by two lions. John was an intelligent man who didn't like being made a fool – perhaps one reason he was never a fan of being on the receiving end of Dumbledore's games. "No. However, there was an incident on the Hogwarts Express and two of these boys-"

"Ah," the old headmaster interrupted (finding some amusement in watching Yusuke's head turn this way and that in their conversation, rather like watching a Quidditch game with the quaffle passing back and forth, back and forth, back and- ). "You mean the supposed demonic attack? Has the ministry considered it an act of Voldemort or perhaps those working for him?"

Dawlish tried to hide the blatant shiver that ran through his body. "That's what we're doing right now, Albus. Investigating."

"Surely you don't think that these boys – mere students, may I remind you – summoned Demons, creatures the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures denies the very existence of, onto the Hogwarts Express and then vanquished them soon afterwards?"

Dawlish's nose twitched. He didn't seem to have a reasonable reply.

"My friend, these boys have little to do with the train, I'm sure. Yusuke," the raven-haired teen glanced over warily, "why don't you tell us what happen?"

There was an annoyed growl after that statement as the boy rolled his eyes. "I've already told him fifty times! Ask him!" Smiling eyes glanced over at the Auror, who was staring at the boy in contempt. Another aggravated noise followed. "Look, Kuwabara and I recognized the things on the train as demons – things we've been trained to fight against back home. We did what we were taught to do: kick their asses off the damn train."

Dumbledore turned to the Auror, his smile growing as if Yusuke's simple answer solved everything. "There you have it. You know as well as I do that the Asian Government has long fought us on the existence of such creatures. It's truly no surprise this young man, someone taught at a young age in Eastern Magicks, knew how to repel a supposed demon. Now then, the boys will be late for the Feast and their Sorting. I'm going to have to request their release."

The Auror gave a tired sigh, running a hand through his gray hair. "Very well, but we're going to want to talk to them again." Yusuke stood, pumping the air with his arm, happy to be free. His interrogator just glared at him. "They aren't off the hook yet."

"Yes, yes," Dumbledore conceded (although in truth it sounded like he hadn't heard a word the other man had said), "whatever the Ministry deems to keep us safe."

John Dawlish tried very hard not to hear the obvious satirical tone as he motioned to his co-workers. The other boys were brought over, each of them looking to the other in a confirming way that only strengthened Dawlish's suspicions.

"Well, then," Dumbledore gave a small nod to the frustrated Auror. "Do have a good day, John." And with that, he and McGonagall escorted the four teenagers out of the tent and to an awaiting carriage, brought specifically for them (as all the other students had already been taken to the castle).

"So," Dumbledore drawled as they drew away from the tents and out of hearing range, "I take it your memories are back?"

Kurama gave a sheepish grin. "Yes, sir. It was the attack. After Yusuke and Kuwabara came back, I realized I remembered everything, as if I'd never forgotten."

"All four of us did," Hiei added, having been mentally trained by Kurama in what to say, or not to say, after arguing heavily with him about handling the whole mess alone.

"I see," Dumbledore merely replied, as if the provided information satisfied him perfectly. McGonagall was a harder catch.

"Mind telling us exactly _how_ you got rid of those creatures?"

"The demons?" Kurama asked, eyes blinking innocently. "We have dealt with them since we were young. Master Kenbo-"

"Kenbo?" The arch in the old woman's eyebrow clearly said she did not believe a word she was about to hear. Yusuke's eye rolling in the background didn't help (what was it with his team thinking up stupid names?), though she luckily did not see it.

"Our teacher in Japan. She taught us long ago how to defend ourselves against the different types of demons." Kurama nodded, as if confirming it to himself as they walked along. Hiei, standing beside him swore he heard the wizened old hag mutter something along the lines of 'now there are types?' but he chose not to comment (Kurama had been strict about playing up his supposedly human senses).

It didn't matter, anyway, as they were (gladly) distracted from the current topic of conversation.

"Whoa!" Yusuke's outcry caught the others' attention as the boy sped up his walk, jogging over to the carriage or, more specifically, the animals pulling it. "What are these things?"

Kuwabara was soon to join him as the shorter of the two reached out his hand and ran it along the horse-like snout. Dumbledore watched amiably as the two stroked the magical creatures, who seemed quite content to let them. He'd always favored the Thestrals, having a sympathetic spot for them in his heart. A friendly and usually calm beast, the horse-like creature was wrongly feared by most because of its dark and deathly appearance. It was nice to see earnest interest rather than blatant trepidation.

"They're called Thestrals," he replied, walking over and laying an aging hand along one's back. A light displacement of air through the nostrils and a nonchalant glance from red eyes was all the response he got. Bespectacled eyes locked on his four mysterious guests, Dumbledore lightly stoked the thestral's back. "There certainly is more to you boys than you let on."

Yusuke glanced to Kurama, suddenly fearful he'd messed something up. "What do you mean?"

"Well," the wizard turned his head to the black horse creature, gently running his fingers over the bony form of its spine, "for one, you can see them."

Kuwabara frowned, mirroring Yusuke's appearance as they glanced at one another. "Can't you?" they both asked, slightly out of harmonization and creating a sort of echo of the other.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, but it's not uncommon for an old man like me to have seen death firsthand."

Kurama stepped up beside Yusuke, eyeing the creature which any normal human would call demonic. Green eyes looked back to half-moon spectacles. "You mean, to those who haven't seen someone die, these beasts are invisible?"

The headmaster nodded, but did not pry. Kurama was rather glad for that (though he knew the old man was thinking of how the four of them had possibly witnessed death…which could be solved with the killing of demons as they'd demonstrated only half an hour ago). If it had been a student to ask, they wouldn't have prepared a story consistent with all four of them and it might have landed them in hot water.

"Come on," McGonagall's sharp voice pulled them out of their small meeting with the winged beasts. "Into the carriage. We'll be late if we don't leave soon."

"Ah, yes, we _can't_ be late for the Feast!" Dumbledore suddenly announced, that carefree personality back as he ushered the four boys onto the carriage. "We'll miss all the good food!"

As they climbed onto the carriage (Yusuke going first so he could get the spot closest to the Thestrals, with which he seemed enraptured), Dumbledore added in a cheerful voice, "And I think it's time we fixed that translation spell."

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 11_

End

-o-o-o-

Alright, so I know that this chapter ended in a rather annoying place, but the Feast scene is going to take at least half a chapter on its own and I am well aware how late this update is already.

**Author Notes:**

_Alcott Cudney: _Source: my odd imagination. Literal translation of the name means Old Cottage by the Water. Not that it's any importance to this story, I just thought it was a little fun.

_John Dawlish_: Source: Harry Potter Encyclopedia. For some reason, I can never remember side-character Aurors. They all tend to blend together for me. However, I wanted an actual Auror from the books, so I tried describing Dawlish as accurately as possible, but I might have been way off. Let me know if I did something fatally wounding to his character.

_Bikou and Portals__**: **_Initially I claimed that Bikou would be a problem for the Reikai because 'he can open portals'. That still stands true. Many of you asked why they couldn't just use him to get a portal home: he can open portals to Maekai only (but that would be an even bigger problem for Reikai than normal portals).

_Transformation at Olivander's_: This will be included in a flashback, I promise. I know several of you have inquired about it. Unfortunately, for where I planned to put it, I wrote a completely different scene than my original blue prints…which usually happens. I have a new slot for this flashback, so just hang with me. Thanks!

**End Author Notes**:

**Note to my Reviewers**: I know that many of you have said that the only major complaint you have about this story is my updating time. Many of you have been kind enough to even suggest ways for me to keep my schedule. I want to thank you all for your suggestions and comments, but unfortunately, I have to say this:

I am a student right now in a school where you don't get free time. Although writing is my life, my education must come first so my updates will be sporadic, at best. Thank you for the comments and suggestions on how I can update faster but please believe me when I say that I am going as fast as my life allows me to.

On a high note, next chapter should be out soon, I've already started on it (and you can look forward to a little Koenma action)

Ja! Oh, and please review!


	13. A Pacifier, a Feast, and a Ratty Old Hat

**Authors Note Ahead of time:**

**Disclaimer**: I am a disclaimer. I take up space.

Hey everyone and welcome back! Please read the following notes as a few changes have been instigated!

**Word Note****: **

_Maekai: _Oh, screw all the online translators out there! I now have a more confirmed belief that it is actually Maekai, which, if anyone cares to remember, was the word I was using in the beginning. Sigh. All chapters have been fixed _again_.

_Tenge_: By suggestion (**Key and WolfStar-SCA)**, I am separating the word for demons into two categories, based on the world they come from: _**Youkai**_: any demon from the _Makai_. _**Tenge**_: any demon from the _Maekai_. Shadow demons, in this case, will be called Kage Tenge. This is to keep from repetitiveness as well as confusion (as the two will end up intermingling some in future chapters). So know that, _for the purpose of this story_, there is no such thing a shadow youkai or kage youkai. Shadow demons are tenge – creatures of the Netherworld.

**The Sorting Hat:**

I always had a different vision of the sorting hat in my mind than the one in the movie, and I don't so much mean physical appearance. I like the gruff voice they gave him and how he looks, but I always thought of him as a little less growly and a little more personality. So if the sorting hat seems out of character, please know that I took a artistic licensing with my opinion of him, since the books do not give much insight or dialogue on his part.

**Thanks**: to **KyoHana** for being the best damn beta a girl can ask for and **Key and WolfStar-SCA** for being an inspiring conspirator with many suggestions (wow, I never realized how long your name is….)

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 12_

A Pacifier, a Feast, and a Ratty Old Hat (Not Necessarily in that Order)

**-o-o-o-**

Koenma had long ago taken to working in his teenage form – he could reach the desk more easily, which allowed for less movement in stamping papers and meant he didn't have to stand on his chair to get a closer look, and it had the added benefit of allowing him to give off a more intimidating presence towards others in his office.

Or the viewing screen, which was currently displaying the newest catastrophe.

Several months age he had sent Genkai on an…infiltration mission. Trouble had been brewing in the witching world (pun intended, of course) and he knew the old master could handle herself in such a situation. As the ruler of Reikai, he was not actively able to send someone into that human battle zone – but as a close associate to the leader of the eastern world of magic, he could suggest someone for the teaching position their western counterparts were seeking to fill. So it wasn't so much of a mission as a…request.

It helped they wanted a teacher with demonic experience. Which was an interesting conundrum, since that world had long denied the existence of such creatures (despite solid proof the East had provided on numerous occasions). But Koenma was glad for it. Had Albus Dumbledore not sought out Eastern help when his ministry failed to, Koenma would not have been clued in to the fact that Tom Riddle was meddling in spells dealing with the demonic.

And that did fall under his jurisdiction.

The best course of action, therefore, was to send someone in (unofficially, of course) who could not only fill the teaching position but perhaps learn a little more about Riddle's movements, as well as help protect the humans in that area. And knowing Genkai, she would immediately begin training them to protect themselves. He had, after all, sent in a woman who hated babysitting.

Of course, that went smashingly well as not two hours later his four best tantei disappeared completely. And _completely_ was a grave word for the Junior Prince of Spirit World, who happened to have eyes in almost every corner of three of the four worlds.

Okay, he didn't have that many eyes in the Makai, but the point was still valid. It was no easy task to fall under the radar of the Reikai. But all four of them had managed it. Simultaneously, at that.

And now there was a third crisis threatening. Staring at the screen, Koenma had come to the conclusion that he was missing a key part of the equation that made up this current mess.

Genkai was in Europe – specifically in an undisclosed area around Scotland – now attending a magical school as they had been setting up for the last several weeks.

He was now staring at the black and red train labeled _Hogwarts Express_ that, according to intelligence, was the main transportation in and out of said school in said undisclosed area around Scotland.

It was also the center point for the last fifty or so reports Reikai had had come streaming in, all in a near panic. Reports both vaguely and specifically detailing an attack by Tenge.

Koenma, though hardly viewed as a diplomat well versed in the ways of ruling, was usually a refined and composed prince.

But _what_ the _fuck_ was going on? He sends the best eastern master into a western school of magic, his tantei go missing, and then a week later there's a theoretically-impossible attack at the very same school conducted by demons that cannot logically be in the human plane in the first place?

He was near tearing his hair out as he continued staring at the live feed focused on the train. They hadn't gotten the reports before the attack occurred, meaning Fate itself had no idea it would happen. Now, Fate is a fickle force that can never fully predict everything – it is a power that uses patterns to calculate the future.

And it misses sometimes. Yusuke's first death was proof of that.

But something like this – these things were predictable. Weakened patches in the old kekkai, fluctuating death and birth rates, growing aggression in the demon world that eventually faded back into centuries of peace. Even attacks conducted by the Maekai were predictable to some extent.

The very fact that this had occurred with no warning was what worried him. Yusuke and his detectives had disappeared with no warning. The two couldn't be a coincidence.

"Jorge!" The barked command had the blue oni scrambling into his office, nearly on all fours so as not to delay his already agitated boss. Koenma gave no time for a greeting or any of their common banter. "I want a task force on this immediately. Find me any information that could explain the presence of kage tenge in correlation with my four missing detectives. Now!"

Jorge didn't even attempt to get a word in edgewise and immediately sprinted back out of the room. Until that moment, Koenma had not assigned any tasks further than research and analysis of incoming data and reports. So now that he had his orders, he wasn't going to test his luck by shirking them.

He gathered several companions and immediately headed for the Great Library.

Botan passed them as they scurried through the halls. She gave a moment's glance before continuing to her boss's office. The blue haired reaper had been spending the last week solely focused on finding her friends. And if Yusuke and the others didn't show up soon, she was afraid that Shizuru and Keiko would start with the more drastic of their myriad ideas.

"Koenma-sama," she greeted as she entered the room, briefly interrupting his constant focus on the television screen. She glanced to it but had already been informed of the newest events. "Any updates?"

"Nothing," the Junior Prince replied with a sigh, finally leaning back in his chair. It squeaked. "I can't find Yusuke, I have no clue how kage tenge got into the Ningenkai, and we still don't know what Riddle is up to."

Botan just nodded, having expected such an answer. Like her employer, she figured there had to be a connection between the three emergencies they now faced. One week ago, the dark wizard, Tom Riddle (under the alias of Voldemort), had conducted a spell that shook the connections of all four worlds – something that, until that moment, Reikai did not think possible. Several of the metaphysical lines that held all four dimensions together had actually snapped.

Though now stable (and under repair by several of the lesser gods), if any further power had been cast into that spell, it was quite possible all four worlds would have been destroyed. Botan had thought only Gods held such power.

And then Yusuke had disappeared. And Kuwabara, and Kurama, and Hiei.

Now, after a week of frantic searching using the best intelligence in all four worlds, they had turned up nothing new. To add to their lovely stack of problems, tenge had shown up in a cluster – something unusual to begin with – in the area Genkai had been sent to protect. It had to be Riddle and whatever he did to the foundations of the four worlds.

Botan's focus returned to her boss as he gave a pained sigh. She could see the lack of sleep showing beneath his eyes and the stress that was making his skin draw taut across his features. There was nothing else she could do to ease the burdens he carried but her job.

Koenma shifted, picking his head up off the back of his chair. "I asked Genkai to investigate the train. I doubt she'll turn up anything our preliminary reports didn't but…" he trailed off, but Botan could finish the sentence herself. _What else can we do? _She contemplated replying, once more, with some form of comfort, but thought it would be wasted. Even she wasn't sure that they would figure this out, and she knew that right now, it wasn't what Koenma needed to hear.

"I spoke with the girls again," she began instead, deciding a report of her current activities was more needed. "I'm worried they'll do something foolish if our boys don't show up soon." Like trying to get into Demon World to search themselves, one of the less extreme ideas with which she'd been threatened.

Koenma nodded, raising a hand to rub his tired eyes. "Mukuro has been sending me nearly two messengers a day threatening war if her heir is not returned to her immediately." He dragged his hand away from his face, skin pulling with the friction and creating a rather comical expression.

"I thought with the end of the tournament there wasn't really a need for the Lords to have heirs…" Botan thought aloud, tapping a finger to her chin. Koenma just gave a childish snort.

"You would think, but just because the need for them as a ruling form of power has vanished, it doesn't mean there aren't those still loyal to them. The three territories are still very much in effect right now, Botan, and the majority of the demons living in those lands remain loyal to their ruling lord. Enki may be making the rules, but the population of demon world is only following him because the three lords are."

Botan gave a sympathetic look towards her boss, knowing this fact was causing him a lot of stress. Despite the relatively well-accepted idea of holding the tournament, it hadn't ended up as much more than an idea.

Koenma seemed to wave the problem off with a weak smile. That pile of paperwork was for another day. "_Lord_ Mukuro has also taken to blaming Kurama for her heir's absence when I fail to be enough. She plans, and I quote, 'to pluck every hair from his tail one by one if he does not stop fraternizing with, and therefore occupying, Hiei'."

Botan couldn't help the laugh, though it was a little on the nervous side. She wouldn't put it past the fiery redhead. Mukuro was protective of her heir, to say the least.

Koenma lifted his head at her chuckle, sparing a small smile in her direction. It faded, however, as his eyes focused over her shoulder at the feed still streaming on the screen. Watching his amber eyes dim, she decided that perhaps her earlier decision was incorrect. Koenma glanced at her as she spoke, her voice having changed from the previously tone of professional worry into comfort.

"We will find them, sir. It's Yusuke after all. If we don't find him, he's sure to find us."

-o-o-o-

The minute all three teenagers were securely sitting at the Gryffindor table, they drew close to one another. Harry, leaning across the table to meet Hermione and Ron's similar postures, began, "Demons."

His redheaded friend immediately paled, skin taking on a rather unhealthy tint of green. Hermione scanned around them as the incoming students filed down the aisles between tables, quickly filling them. Harry had kept his voice low, not exactly wanting to discuss it openly. Neville and Luna were deep in a discussion of plants and Kyptrolls (not that anyone knew what a kyptroll was in the first place) to the left of them, and Dean and Seamus had just settled to their right. Luckily, neither group seemed to be paying attention to the golden trio.

"What about them?" she asked in reply, turning her attention back to the Boy-Who-Lived. She kept her ears perked, cautious of those around them picking up on their conversation.

"My dream, the one with Voldemort-" Hermione gave Ron an annoyed nudge as he shivered once more- "he was summoning demons. And then those four show up-"

"And then demons show up on the train," Hogwart's smartest witch finished, her own eyes widening. She should have seen it sooner, but she'd been too caught up in their guests. Guests that could very well be their newest enemies. "You don't think-"

"I don't want to," Harry replied harshly, turning his head away and keeping his green eyes on the wooden grain of the table. No, he didn't want to think that they were demons. He didn't want to think that they were evil. Some form of amity had grown between Harry and the four boys during their week-long stay. He couldn't say he called them friends just yet, but he didn't want to see them on the opposing side of the battlefield.

In truth, the thought also scared him. There was something about them, a raw, unnamed sensation that flowed from them. It hadn't seemed threatening, per se, but it had said, in a very loud voice, 'don't mess with me.' And he certainly didn't want to start now, or have to in the future.

But, on the other hand, they had to know. He couldn't go into this blind and naïve. Wanting to believe wasn't enough. They were on the precipice of war; looking down into the darkness that waited for all of them should they fall. He had to know.

He would never let himself or his friends walk blindly into a trap again.

"What do you want to do, mate?" Ron asked, still looking a little unsure on the very topic of demons. Neither Harry nor Hermione thought of the redhead as a religious person, but he did have a tendency toward imagining the worst of things. They had no doubt that he was conjuring images of horned beasts wreathed in flame.

"I don't know," he replied, sounding as lost as he felt. "We've got to know if they're human or not."

"And if they caused the attack," Hermione interjected, bringing both boys' attention to her. "You have to admit the appearance of demons while they're on the same train is suspicious."

Yes, he certainly had to admit it.

"Blimey," Ron muttered suddenly, looking for all the world like he had just seen a thousand acromantulas racing towards him. "If they did cause it, that means they can do it again!"

"Even if they didn't, it could still happen again," Harry countered. Inside, by instinct and gut feeling, he was still defending them, despite what his brain was telling him to do. "We need to talk to Dumbledore."

It was at this point that the three students looked towards the faculty table and realized it was partially empty. Hagrid had just come in, settling himself in his usual under-sized seat. The teachers at either end of the table – Trelawney, Flitwik, Babbling, Sprout, – they were all there. But the seats that were usually occupied by the headmaster, Professor McGonagall, and Snape were empty.

As was the Defense professor's chair.

"Where are they?" Ron asked, eyes lingering on the last empty chair for a moment longer. Hermione gave a light shrug of her shoulder, frizzy hair shifting as she did so.

"With the aurors, of course," she supplied easily enough. "Dumbledore is probably getting Yusuke and the others away from them."

Harry paused, digesting the new piece of information. Of course the headmaster would be down by the train – not only had there been an attack that had endangered the students of the school, but the ministry also wasn't very well informed about their Japanese visitors. And with how many possible spies, willing or not, Voldemort might have in the Ministry, Harry was reluctantly relieved.

Of course, part of him wondered if splitting the wizarding world between the Ministry and Dumbledore was very good for their cause. In all his experience, he couldn't imagine a civil war in the middle of the war they already faced would help any.

"What's with the interrogation, anyway?" Ron asked, finally facing forwards once more, glancing over to the girl beside him. "I mean, they showed up in third year too, but they didn't drag anyone off."

Hermione let out a brief snort which, if the redhead hadn't known her for so long, might have been insulting. But it wasn't aimed at him this time. "Can you really ask that? That was a dementor attack; the aurors knew what they were investigating. If what Kurama and Yusuke said is true, this attack was demonic. Our ministry doesn't even support the existence of those creatures."

"How can they not support them? They were right there!"

The witch shook her head, disdain for the politics involved clearly showing on her face. "Because England doesn't have a large population of demons, if any at all. People tend to dismiss things they don't see on a regular basis."

"Like magic," Harry commented with a light smirk. Hermione gave a small smile, though Ron seemed slightly confused. He supposed it had something to do with the muggle-world he knew so little about.

"Like magic," Hermione echoed with a light nod, some of the tension previously seen in her expression fading. "Anyway, Asian countries have always fought us on that point. They claim that they are half overrun with them. It does fit with Yusuke's story, that they learned at a young age to defend themselves against those things."

"If you grew up with them, it would be normal," Harry added, thinking about how many times he had faced Voldemort now. It was almost a routine, something he did annually. It wasn't exactly something another person would call normal.

At that moment, the far doors of the hall opened and Dumbledore and Snape entered, robes fluttering as they moved through the student tables up to the staff table. The former held a wide smile, the kind Harry was getting to know as the something-is-wrong-but-we-won't-say-it smile. It meant that there was a problem, but it wasn't serious enough to announce to the students. It also told Harry that it wasn't serious enough to have Dumbledore visibly worried, which he had seen on a few previous occasions.

As Snape (decidedly less happy looking) took his seat, the bearded man remained standing. The Great Hall fell into a hush as the headmaster raised both hands, signaling the beginning of his yearly introduction.

"Now, now," he started, voice ringing through the large room, "I must apologize for the delay. We had some excitement on the train this year!" Loud whispers broke out once more, a sparse number even laughing a little nervously at their headmaster's far too cheerful tone. "But as we think back on these and other events, let us remember that sometimes, in the face of darkness, we find friends in the oddest of places."

With that and a wink coincidentally aimed in Harry's direction, the man sat down and the Great Hall doors opened with their customary creaks and groans. Thirty or so first years, huddled together in an obvious attempt to fend off the fear and nervousness each was feeling, started filing into the room behind Professor McGonnagall.

Harry watched them walk past, coming to the sad realization that there were less new students this year as parents, undoubtedly, kept their children at home due to the impending war. They stared at everything in awe and sheer terror, many eyes catching the ceiling. A smile flittered across the face of the Boy-Who-Lived, remembering his own anxiety and amazement at this very hall. He was still amazed by it and the entire world of magic that surrounded it.

His attention was drawn by a laugh and a flash of red, his eyes settling at the end of the line of students. It was Yusuke who had laughed (it was a voice that was hard to misplace) as he filed in behind the first years. He was followed by his three friends, as well as five other students Harry had never seen before.

They had to be the aurors.

He studied them closely. They looked to be in the older age group of Hogwarts, problem fifteen and up. He couldn't tell by looking at them from which 'school' and country each supposedly came. In fact, he couldn't really tell anything, knowing that anything he inferred by their appearance would be an utter fallacy.

Still, he wondered which among them was Tonks. He had a nagging feeling it was the older of the two girls, though such a feeling might have been influenced by the bright blue hair and abundance of piercings.

Harry's attention refocused on Yusuke, leading his group of four friends. The boy was avidly pointing things out, nudging Kuwabara every few seconds, which seemed fine because the boy would tug on his friend's shirt in return when he spotted something. And there was a lot to spot; their eyes ranged from the floating candles, to the high stone walls to the nighttime ceiling, to the table with its teachers, to all the students watching them enter.

Green eyes traveled down the group to Kurama and Hiei. Harry smiled as he realized both were equally impressed. A small bit of pride welled within him as he realized he was beginning to read their expressions a little easier. The redhead of the group was smiling slightly, looking to Hiei every few minutes and murmuring. The shorter of the two would nod every once in awhile, trying to seem disinterested, but it didn't stop his eyes from wandering.

The pride only grew, knowing that the four of them were impressed by the castle he called home.

With no further introduction given, McGonagall halted the students, stepped forward to grab the stool and Sorting Hat, and set them in the middle of the room. Harry continuously glanced back to the four Japanese boys, who had been told briefly that a hat would be sorting them but, other than that, hadn't gotten too much information (at least, they hadn't told the four it was going to sing).

And sing it did. The seams above its brim slowly parted, opening much like a mouth, before emitting a low key:

_Many a hundred years before_

_When I was freshly threaded_

_Four wizards rose to greatness_

_And to them we are indebted_

_For this school was built by those_

_Who toiled day and night_

_To make a place for those who sought_

_Relief at haven's sight_

_Here it is they welcome you_

_Into their humble dwelling_

_Though time has passed and so have they_

_Their names are still in telling_

_Gryffindor, whose heart was brave_

_Made a crest of red and gold_

_For those who came unto his house_

_His trust and loyalty they hold_

_Ravenclaw the clever,_

_Left behind a crest of wit_

_For the wise who love to learn_

_In blue and bronze are sure to fit_

_Hufflepuff, with gentle heart_

_Left a crest of love and care_

_Yellow gives to those who seek_

_A home and heart to share_

_Slytherin, in purest green,_

_Was one of great pursuits,_

_To those who seek empowerment_

_Here their toil bares them fruit_

_Now these four have long since gone_

_And left me in their place,_

_This year, to each, a home I give,_

_A shield, not house, for all you face_

_But first take heed and listen_

_To these rags of mine that know,_

_A gathering will come to pass_

_Of those named friend and others foe_

_In trying times, do not forget_

_What four once did together_

_And to your home, I place you now_

_Before all that you will weather_

The song ended on a note of utter silence. In previous years, the student population had remained polite towards the old hat's song, but now they remained hushed, no whispering or gestures. Harry glanced to Hermione and Ron, seeing a similar reaction across their face: uncertainty.

The sorting hat had given a warning this year and, in his experience, the wise old rag had never been wrong.

Slowly, having lost the intention of focusing on Yusuke and his three friends, Harry returned his green eyes to them. He was not surprised to find that all four of them held tension in their guarded eyes. They hadn't missed it either.

But the hat had also spoken of a friendship, perhaps one that would span houses (though Harry wasn't sure how likely that could be for one of the four). Realizing it, it gave the Boy-Who-Lived a brief moment of comfort. He liked to think that the Sorting Hat had been speaking about the four arrivals.

Harry allowed himself the momentary reassurance that they weren't the evil, flesh-eating demons his mind was beginning to suspect they were and briefly entertained thoughts of sneaking into Dumbledore's office later to ask the rag himself.

---

Kurama glanced to his left at the nudging to his ribs, eyes as equally green as those currently staring at them glanced at the straightforward appearance of his leader. Yusuke matched the glance, about to nudge his redheaded colleague again when he realized he'd captured the fox's attention.

"Do we have a plan?"

The kitsune merely lifted an eyebrow. "Do we need one?"

Yusuke frowned momentarily, as if actually considering this. "Well," he began, and from the way his shoulder sort of twitched, Kurama figured he was suppressing the urge to shrug, "I know Hiei can probably trick the hat thingy, but do the rest of us need to worry about where it sorts us?"

The redhead allowed himself a brief smile. It was true his earlier attempts at trying to keep Yusuke's hopes of a rescue down had seemed to be in vain, but luckily he followed a boy who not only knew when to be serious in the face of uncertainty (most of the time), but who also had a rather short memory. "We don't care, Yusuke. Even if Koenma fails to find us, our placement should not affect anything we do. However, if it concerns you, at least one of us should find themselves in both Gryffindor and Slytherin."

Yusuke contemplated the information he was given, not fully understanding Kurama's decisiveness. He was trying not to give away the excitement of not being here much longer, but knew that when the redhead had an idea in mind, it was usually the result of great thought, understanding, and planning. So, instead he nodded slowly. "Alright, I'll make sure to get into Gryffindor."

"With your noble tendencies, I have a feeling that won't be difficult."

"Hey!" Yusuke was in danger of being heard by the first years and other 'transfer' students around them, who were slowly thinning out now that McGonagall had a list from which she was calling names. Out of the corner of one eye, both boys were watching the first years being sorted.

Kurama smiled, turning away from the hat, which had just called out 'RAVENCLAW' for the beaming girl who sat beneath its brim. "Don't worry, Yusuke, the comment was meant in complete sincerity."

"Yeah," Yusuke mumbled, glaring sidelong at the kitsune, "and only a _little_ teasing, right?"

The fox merely let out a low chuckle and did not deign to answer.

From his right, a gruff voice broke into their conversation; "I'll get into the Snake House." Red eyes never left the sorting or gave any inclination as to the fact that he was talking to them. Both were used to it, and both merely nodded.

"That takes care of that. Kuwabara, I believe, is guaranteed to be placed in Gryffindor more than you are, Yusuke.-" ("Hey, I heard that, Kurama!") "-And I will simply let hat decide for me." The redhead grinned slightly at the attention he had caught from Hiei, the former clearly trying to figure out the intent of his last statement.

With a single, grunted syllable, he turned back. The first years were nearly done and, with their final classmate (a young boy by the name of Joshua Zigbott, poor thing) taking his place among the Ravenclaw table, Dumbledore stood once more, his hands rising to beckon silence through the still cheering crowd of students.

"Tonight, and this year, we have been granted a special treat. Hogwarts will be host to nine foreign students, who have transferred here to further their studies." Whispers spread through the room like wildfire, most pertaining to such a dangerous time for exchange students. Dumbledore hushed them again with his arms, hands gently moving up and down once again to ask for a moment of silence. "These studious witches and wizards have asked to study here, knowing the hardships which face us now. It is in times like these that we must remember that we are not alone. The world is far too big a place for one to ever be unaided in a time of need."

Harry listened to his words in silence, both grim and hopeful at the same time. He did not miss the allusion the headmaster had made towards the four Japanese boys – the alliance he wished to make with them. None of the four boys in question missed it either, knowing the old man was asking for their friendship and aid, when faced with the possibility of joining Voldemort instead.

But the message also held its comfort for the rest of the student population. It hinted towards possible alliances with other countries, other schools and cities full of wizards not willing to leave England to Voldemort. Of course, they were not aware that the 'students' which might represent that truth were all British and Aurors at that. But it did not matter, for even with that lie, the possibility of the world backing them in their war still rang true.

Harry, who had never considered wizardry outside of Britain, actually paused, wondering if it was the truth. If Voldemort began to gain the upper hand, would the rest of the magicking world lend aid?

Dumbledore sat down, though whispers still permeated the hall. McGonagall returned her attention to the bottom of her scroll, giving it a slight wave to tighten the paper that hung between the thick wooden bars. She cleared her throat and, in her tight voice, called the first student. "Acuña, Andres of Argentinia, under the study of Maestro Carrizo."

The momentary hush, brought on by the name and further entitlement, broke as a tan-skinned boy stepped forward, no more than fourteen or fifteen years of age. Dark brown hair hung to his neck in long, stick-straight strands. He looked nervous, hazel eyes glancing around him before stepping forward. The boy, obviously Hispanic, took the seat. He kept his chin raised proudly as the hat was lowered to his head, but his fidgeting belayed his anxieties.

Or, at least, put on a good show for the majority of students that didn't know he was actually a twenty-nine year old English Wizard (by the name of Timothy Briors) currently working for the Ministry as a metamorphmagus Auror.

The hat was only on his head seconds before it cried out "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The boy, grinning, jumped off his chair and made his way over to his cheering table, with two of the other tables clapping sportingly and the last in obvious mockery.

"Brighenton, Roy from the Quigley School of Australia."

A well built, muscular, young man was the second to step forward, making his way over to the stool and sitting. His sturdy frame and tanned skin had many of the girls within the Great Hall whispering quietly to one another, and Harry couldn't help but think that this man had gotten the plus side of the job. Seemingly oblivious to it all, Roy closed his bright blue eyes as the sorting hat was placed on his full head of curly, sandy-brown hair.

There was silence for a moment. It didn't stretch long before the raggedy hat seemed to make a decision and declared, "GRYFFINDOR!" loudly to the room.

"De Luca, Clarissa of the De Luca Institute in Italy," was the next name called as Roy made his way to the Gryffindor table, winking at the cheering crowd (mostly made up of females). They swooned somewhat, while the boys just rolled their eyes (Harry and Ron included).

A few comments broke out over the newest name and the commonality it held with her school name. A willowy girl of perhaps sixteen or seventeen stepped forward, robes swishing around her long legs. Flaxen blonde hair that fell down to her mid back, swaying with every step, was clearly one of the joys of her life, looking to have been meticulously brushed as it practically shone in the candlelight. Cold, green-gray eyes surveyed the student populace as she sat daintily down upon the chair, crossing her legs with all the superiority of a faux princess.

The hat hadn't managed to touch her prima-donna hair when it yelled out 'SLYTHERIN!"

The members of the golden trio exchanged glances, wondering if this girl that was supposedly on the Ministry's side was just a good actor, or truly evil to the core.

"Jaganshi, Hiei of the Kobiyashi Institute of Japan." Three pairs of eyes snapped back to the front as the short boy they were getting to know well (with no help from his atrocious attitude) stepped forward. There were more whispers through the hall, though they were more concerned with how the parents of such a young child could possibly agree to send him overseas during a time of war.

The glare he sent to each and every one of them shut them up _quickly_, though it did little to quiet the snickers of his teammates.

Hiei, already annoyed that within the time span of a minute his parents as well as his height had been brought up as a negative (add to that the age factor that came along with the height, proving both Yusuke and Kurama right, gods damn it), was not in a good mood when the hat was settled upon his spiky hair.

He immediately felt it probe his mind and didn't bother to hold back the smug grin when it found absolutely nothing.

"…_Hello?" _The hat frowned, literal wrinkles creasing above its concave eyes. It searched again and one more time for good measure, finding nothing but a large expanse of blackness, dense like a wall, but warm like a living thing.

"_What do you want?" _

The sudden voice nearly caused the old hat to yelp; barely containing itself from making a verbal disruption and instead managing to remain composed within the student's mind.

"_Well, you gave me a bit of a scare,"_ the hat replied in its crotchety old voice, clearly not amused as it echoed between Hiei's ears. The demon twitched, disliking the presence of another within his head (a small and distant part of himself – the part that maybe, sort of, kind of cared about curiosity and empathy and cute little puppies – wondered if those whose minds he'd read had this violated sensation too).

"_I wasn't aware I'd been placed on your head." _The intruding thing was still talking_. "In fact, if you hadn't spoken, I still wouldn't be aware. Why can't I see your mind, child?"_

The suspicious tone of the hat, something Hiei would have taken great pleasure in being the cause of, went completely forgotten as he hissed at the thing within the telepathic limits of his mind. Years of mental communication had taught him to keep all responses, even those of impulse, in his thoughts alone.

"_I am not a child! And you cannot see because I am not allowing you to do so."_

There was only a second's delay before it dawned on the aged material. _"Mind control – You're a demon." _ Hiei withheld his snort (it took the hat how long? And they called it magic)._ "I haven't sorted one of your kind in a long time. Several centuries, at least."_

The voice was neither awed nor fearful, and Hiei resisted the urge to use a level of sarcasm reserved only for the Oaf. Kurama had reminded him several times, much to his chagrin, not to be impertinent with the stupid rag.

"_I don't care, get on with it."_

That was a decent level of politeness coming from him, right?

"_That's a rash request, young demon, considering I can't find what I need to sort you." _The hat, on the other hand, saw this as being a reasonable claim (and perhaps a fair shot back at the cocky kid upon whose head he rested). Plus, throwing in an extra poke at the boy's obvious soreness towards age was just a side benefit.

Hiei's patience was wearing thin and the blood flowing through his veins – every bit of the fire that made him – was starting to boil. Kurama's recurring lectures, which had eventually turned to threats, were beginning to fade from his conscience.

"_Stop treating me like a human child!" _With a small breath that he was sure the fox would pick up on (seeing as he was the only one not idiotic (translation: observant) enough to see it), the fire demon managed to calm himself to only a highly-irate state. _"Just put me in Slytherin." _

The hat seemed to laugh at him. Oh yeah, Kurama's warnings be damned, this thing was going down in flames.

"_I can't just put you somewhere I do not approve," _it scoffed, as if this was common knowledge of which Hiei should have been aware._ "And I can't approve without seeing your mind."_

"_You are __**not**__ seeing my mind."_

Hiei swore if hats could smile this one was grinning from brim to crown._ "Then you'll be sitting on that stool for a __**very**__ long time."_

The growl that followed was one the fire demon usually used to scare away truly irksome pests (it could send a C class pretty much running and, safe to say, made Kuwabara wet his pants every time).

The hat gave a coarse, overly exasperated sigh_. "Very well, if you won't show me your mind…" _The pause that filled his head took whatever small thought Hiei was having about cooperative headgear and threw it down the drain._ "Could you tell me about yourself?"_

The blatantly asked question, to which Hiei knew the hat didn't expect an answer, was the final straw. He knew something on him had to be steaming at this point (luckily, he did have better control than that and would not risk the consequences to his teammates were he to ruin their cover).

"_You will sort me __**now **__or I will cut you into so many shreds that no amount of magic or miracle will be able to sew you back together!"_

There was another silence, this one a bit more convincing to the fire demon. _ "My, you are rather rash, aren't you?" _Though the gargled words voiced consent, the bundle of cloth still seemed to be amused by the demon's irritation. _"Very well, I will – reluctantly – put you in _SLYTHERIN!"

Hiei rolled his eyes as the call broke their mental conversation and echoed through the hall. Scattered, hesitant cheering to his far left signaled where he was supposed to go as the hat was lifted off his head, clearing his obscured vision.

He jumped from the stool, sent Kurama an imperceptible nod, and headed towards the cheering table (which looked less than pleased at their newest member). Three pairs of eyes watched as he sat down between two students who, reluctantly, scooted over. Glancing back to his friends, Harry noticed that neither was surprised at where the smallest of their guests had landed.

And neither looked too sure about it, either.

"Kuwabara, Kazuma of Japan, under the study of Master Takahashi." With the next name called, eyes turned once more to the remaining exchange students, the tallest of them stepping up to the chair and sitting down. His lanky legs looked awkward, resting on the bottom peg of the stool and making him look rather cricket-like. He didn't seem to notice and was probably used to it.

Kuwabara, eyes rolled upwards, watched the hat lower on his head, blocking his vision. He felt something probe his head and decided friendliness (there was no call to be rude, after all) and straight forwardness would be the best way to handle a mind-invading hat.

_'Hi, I was wondering if you could put me i-'_

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The old hat, having not been on his head for more than five seconds, was pulled off again. "Hey!" he yelled indignantly, startling Professor McGonagall, who stared at him, abashed. Her gaze narrowed, cautioning and disapproving at his outcry. "I wasn't finished yet!"

The hall broke into snickers and some barely contained laughter, Yusuke's among the latter. He high fived Kuwabara as the boy passed, though the gesture was returned with resentment and grumbling. The lanky teen made his way down the table, ignoring the students who scooted aside to make room, and plopped himself down beside Harry, still grumbling.

The Boy-Who-Lived gave him a smile, pushing away any uncertain thoughts about the boy and welcoming him to their house. Kuwabara seemed to cheer up slightly, even as the next name was being called.

"Kurstetter, Jonathon of the American Cheshire Institute of Black and White Magic." Long name aside, several students perked up at the first American to come to Hogwarts. They had had European transfers before and, while the Asian students were of interest, the American boy seemed to be more so. He had pale skin and short-cropped, though still unruly, light brown hair. His eyes, which seemed rather adventurous, scanned the crowd as he plopped, with less than guest-like grace, onto the stool.

The sorting took some time with him and Harry wondered what the conversation between hat and auror was about. It was likely that this Jonathon already knew where he would be placed, so the delay was all for show. And knowing the Sorting Hat, which was an oddly talkative thing to begin with, the topics could be wide ranging.

It finally settled and gave a slight nod of its cone-shaped crown as the seam split once more. "RAVENCLAW!"

The man hopped from the stool, smirking as he moved over to the cheering table and sliding between two girls, giving them both charming smiles. Harry wondered how it was that two of the three male Aurors had taken on roles of hormonal teenage boys. Glancing back down his own table, eyes roaming over Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville, he wondered briefly if the ministry thought teenage boys had nothing else to think about.

Or maybe, with the weight of the wizarding world on his shoulders, it was just him.

"Minamino, Kurama of Japan, under the study of Master Shigure Itoh." The golden trio was not surprised when the whispers climbed to an all new level, complete with several girlish giggles accenting it. It didn't seem Kurama's own friends were surprised either, as Yusuke nudged him, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

The redhead gave him a light frown and stepped away and up to the stool. Harry, knowing the feeling of everyone looking at you for something other than yourself, felt a sympathetic smile growing on his lips. Of course, that didn't stop it from being funny.

Kurama sat gracefully down on the stool, purposefully but subtly doing so with better poise than the De Luca girl. It fed his ego just a tad, and he allowed it, though knowing full well the amount of giggling spelled doom for any socializing he might be intending to do. Not that his intent was grand by any means.

The hat slid over his eyes and he closed them, not bothering to let his focus remain in the physical realm. There was silence at first, accompanied by a gentle searching, a probing at the edges of his mind. As he often did when Hiei would instigate a telepathic channel, resulting in a similar sensation, he pulled back the carefully erected walls of his mind enough to let his consciousness become visible to the other, but not his thoughts.

"_Mind control," _was the first thing to be said, as he had assumed it would be. "_You are a demon as well, though more cooperative than your companion."_

Kurama smiled lightly, though most of the expression remained behind his schooled features. _"I am a demon, yes. You'll have to forgive the precaution."_

There was a momentary pause, as if the hat were actually weighing whether he would or not. As if he actually had a choice. "_Understandable,_" was the gruff reply. "_You are living off lies fed to many people."_

Kurama resisted the urge to tighten those walls once more. He had known that fact would have been visible, though not the content of his lies, yet still knowing another creature was aware irked his demonic nature. He chose to remain silent rather than explain himself; it made it easier not to slip up as well as to gauge the hat's reaction.

"_Again, understandable," _the old rag replied and he could once more feel it filtering through his thoughts, though he let little show and cross-checked everything he did exhibit. "_I am under oath and spell not to reveal what I find in a student's mind_," the hat continued and Kurama let himself nod slightly, portraying his understanding. The magical object was simply explaining the truth of both their situations; he could not be revealed and the hat could not even if it desired to do so.

"_Then perhaps we should begin the sorting."_ Kurama allowed a little more of his memories to seep through the walls of his mind. He was aware that the hat had spoken of its oath to coax this out of him, but he was also aware that he had put up the wall specifically so the hat would tell him what he needed to know. Both were manipulating the minds they were linked to, and both were aware of it.

The hat seemed to agree with his statement, eating up every bit of information that was leaked his way. "_You are a conundrum," _it muttered after a long period of time and the redhead let out a light chuckle. _"I'm not so willing to call it a laughing matter,_" the hat continued, sounding annoyed. _'You're kind and well-mannered, but practically barbaric beneath it. You seek knowledge, but only to empower yourself. You're fierce and loyal, but cold and willing to commit betrayal. You love and yet you believe love to be a weakness."_

The redhead, having not realized he'd let out enough to conclude that last statement, reigned in his control slightly. It was an instinctual reaction he cursed himself for, however, because he knew the hat had felt it and now had the upper hand in a battle of minds. There was silence for several more moments; Kurama knowing that anything he had previously planned to use to keep the hat from questioning his intent would no longer work. The rag just sat in expectant silence, waiting for the explanation he knew was there.

"_I have two souls," _the fox finally relented. He had weighed the options of not answering, but had a feeling the grouchy hat would only make the sorting more difficult, something he didn't want to deal with at the time.

Surprisingly, the cloth only seemed to nod._ "A fact that would have been helpful __**before**__ I attempted to sort you." _ The rummaging through his mind continued, this time moving right up to test against those walls. Not liking the intrusion or the boldness of the hat, the fox let those walls push right back, feeling the spell that held the cloth together flinch slightly. It immediately backed off. _"Quite the conundrum," _it reiterated, clearly not happy with the head it sat on. _"I can't sort you."_

"_That's not exactly an ideal conclusion_," Kurama replied, keeping his tone calm despite the obstinate hat. _"Use only one of my souls then."_

"_Impossible_," the hat argued back, scoffing and sounding for all the world as if the fox should have known it was a ridiculous request. "_They are too far ingrained in one another. Discerning one from the other would take hours."_

The fact that the sorting hat was not willing to sit for hours and do such a thing went unsaid, but not unheard. The fact that the hat, once more, knew more than Kurama wanted it to only further agitated him.

"_You choose a student's placement by where they want to be, rather than where they fit by personality, do you not?" _The hat did not reply and Kurama knew he was correct. It had been an answer he'd drawn after hearing Hermione's, Harry's, and Ron's depictions of the sorting and he concluded, should it come to that, he would use this knowledge. If a person wanted to be somewhere specific, it was likely that was how he wanted his personality to be as well and would conform to that ideal. "_Well, I want to be-"_

"SLYTHERIN!"

Kurama frowned sharply at being interrupted by the hat's bold assumption which was, frankly, incorrect. He felt Professor McGonagall's hand wrap around the top of the hat and pull it off of his head, but not before the smug thing delivered one more message. _"You want to be where the fire demon is."_

The redhead stepped down from the stool, expression schooled but irritation burning in his eyes. He was not pleased about a cocky hat one-upping his plans and all because he had not kept a more guarded eye on the memories he allowed to surface. Part of him was furious with the hat, another with himself, but the smallest part of his ranging reactions – the part that was shocked those memories were enough to draw a conclusion about a love he had kept hidden – wasn't angry at all.

He sat down next to Hiei, who was eyeing him speculatively. Those red eyes watched him carefully for several moments. "Welcome to the Snake House, Fox."

The redhead just gave a wry smile and did not reply, as dictated by the rules of a game only they knew.

Across the table, on the other side of the aisle, Harry sat, staring with wide eyes at the redhead. He twisted back around to look at Hermione and Ron, who looked equally shell-shocked. Kurama had been the gentlest of the three and, of all the houses they had suspected he might end up in, Slytherin was the last on the list.

"Bloody hell," Ron mumbled, looking away from the other redhead. "Maybe he is a demon."

"Just because he ended up in that house doesn't make him demonic, Ronald," Hermione chastised lightly, though the same worry was in her eyes. Harry glanced over his shoulder one more time. He didn't stay that way for long as green eyes suddenly met his and he swallowed, turning slowly back around. "Besides," Hermione continued, turning back to watch the last two exchange students. Yusuke's name was being called under the same school as Hiei's, "the hat took a really long time with him. Maybe it was having trouble deciding."

Harry took comfort in her statement, though his doubts still lingered and he, too, turned his gaze to watch Yusuke bound up to the stool and sit, obviously rather excited about the whole thing.

"_Yo, put me in Gryffindor."_

There was a stunned silence in the darkness that had enveloped the teen's mind the moment the hat settled on his head. "_I beg your pardon?"_

Yusuke rolled his eyes, giving an annoyed growl. He crossed his arms and, for the rest of the students, the annoyance was very easy to see. And perhaps a little comical, watching the boy argue through body language. "_I said put me in Gryffindor, you old rag."_

The hat bristled at the comment but chose not to retort. "_And why should I do this, exactly?"_

"_Because there's no way in hell Kuwabara's gonna have all the fun if we end up stuck here." _The hat, emitting waves of confusion, let out a curious sound. _"Look, if I get stuck here cuz Koenma doesn't find us – and from the way Kurama's acting, like he doesn't have a plan – I'm guessing it's a possibility. So, I wanna' be around Potter because that's where all the fun's going to be."_

The hat couldn't quite follow this logic (from the memories privy to him, he was well aware who Koenma was, garnishing some shock to be felt at a later time) and just sat for a moment, debating the request and its reason. He acquiesced that, despite not understanding how Harry Potter was going to be surrounded by fun (but vaguely concluding it had something to do with this boy's love of fighting), the boy was noble and loyal to a fault near that of his taller companion. _"Very well then. _ GRYFFINDOR!"

Yusuke jumped off the stool, fisting the air in victory, and headed down towards the table. He plopped down next to Kuwabara, sharing a grin with the golden trio as if he had just won the biggest tournament in the universe. That grin was transferred to Kurama, who sat directly across from him, a table over. The redhead hid his smile behind the back of his hand and replied with a nod.

"Winters, Abigail of the American Cheshire School of Black and White Magic." The last name was announced, calling attention to the most flamboyant of the exchange students. With the bright blue hair, multiple ear piercings, and touch of personal style in the uniform (complete with choker and neon colored tie), Harry had little doubt that this was Tonks.

She sat on the stool, a smirk on her face as the hat settled over her features. It only took a few minutes' time before it shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!" and she bounded off to a seat coincidentally not far from Harry or the two Japanese transfers. She winked at the Boy-Who-Lived as he watched her and, with that gesture, he knew it was Tonks.

Of course, everyone else who had been watching thought the new girl had a thing for the famous boy who had saved the wizarding world.

Dumbledore stood once more, though it took a far longer time to quiet the hall, mostly due to the Gryffindor table, which was cheering louder than the rest, having received four of the nine exchange students (another thing Harry had a feeling was less than luck). When the hall did quiet, though it never fully fell silent as whispered greetings and comments were still exchanged amongst the first years and new students, Dumbledore graced them with a proud smile.

"I am glad to see our new students and visitors will be welcomed fondly." He seemed to grow slightly more serious after this, eyes roaming across the four tables. "We have several changes this school year, including several rules to which I hope you will adhere. As always, our kind caretaker Mr. Filch asks me to remind you that the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all students not under the escort of a teacher."

Harry frowned curiously, eyes meeting Hermione's. The addition of a teacher escort was new, and the foreshadowing in it was somewhat troublesome, to say the least.

"We have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore hand moved in a sweeping gesture to the empty chair, the majority of the students' eyes following the movement. "Who, unfortunately, could not be in attendance tonight. Professor Mushayama will have to meet all of you over the first week of classes. Please welcome her with the same kindness you have shown our new students."

Hermione fidgeted slightly, the movement not missed by Ron and Harry. The former nudged her, eyes asking what was going on. She spared him a glance with a slight smile, before returning attention to Dumbledore The agitation was still there. "I've never heard of Mushayama," she began, seemingly uncomfortable with this information. Her two best friends were soon to know why. "At a time like this, we should be learning from someone who can teach us how to defend ourselves. Merlin knows we barely know now."

She caught Harry's eyes and looked slightly apologetic. "I mean, not that you weren't- aren't- a great teacher, Harry. Just that-"

"We need someone who knows what they're doing," he concluded with a nod. It stung a little, especially since forming the DA had been her idea in the first place, but he also knew she hadn't meant harm by her comment. They did need a teacher because, as he'd said, most of his success had been luck so far. And that would only get you so far.

He wanted to learn to defend himself. He wanted to get stronger. He wanted to be able to protect his friends, the only family he had left anymore.

Hermione still looked guilty, as if wishing she hadn't spoken but knowing what she had said was right. "Well…yes, and someone who can teach us sixth and seventh year material." She returned her attention to the headmaster, still ambling away. "Either way, a no-name witch isn't going to do the trick."

"Geez, Hermione," Ron muttered, shoulders slumping slightly. "It's not this Mushy-yama's fault she isn't in any of your books."

Hermione just rolled her eyes, not commenting on her friend's ability to stand up for women and ignore the point completely. He was, after all, a noble Gryffindor. "It's Mush-_**a-**_yama, Ronald."

"It's Japanese." Kuwabara's words, a voice they weren't used to hearing sitting beside them at Hogwarts, caused them to look at the boy. Yusuke was watching as well, obviously having been intently listening to the conversation. The three cringed slightly, realizing they had forgotten the transfer students – _possible demons, _the reminder practically hissed – were there. The tall teen was smiling at them. "Don't think it's too common of a name though."

"Do you think she's from Japan?" Hermione asked, eager to gather as much information as possible, as was the way of the only witch that occupied Hogwarts' Library more days a year than the librarian did.

Kuwabara just shrugged, but it was Yusuke that answered. "Don't know. She could be, though I never heard of her, or she could have moved here years ago, or she could be the daughter of someone who moved here years ago."

That made sense. After all, just because someone had a certain name, didn't mean they were directly from that place. Still, with four Japanese boys showing up and now their Defense teacher from Japan…. After everything that had happened in his life, Harry Potter was hard pressed to believe in coincidences.

Neville, catching the drift of the quiet conversation but not of what was being said, looked over. He smiled at Yusuke, no longer feeling so nervous after the boy had healed him on the train (with a version of what he believed was eastern magic) and shared the rest of their very full compartment for the duration of the ride. The raven-haired boy, never one to pay attention during long-winded speeches from authority figures, caught the glance and grinned.

"How's the arm?" At the question, Neville seemed slightly flustered but lifted the appendage, which was perfectly fine, as Yusuke knew it would be. Of course, messing with him a little wouldn't hurt. He reached out across the table, intent to play off the gullible kid's nervousness (and double check on the healed cut, as that responsible part of him buried deep deep down thought he should).

"And now, let's feast." Dumbledore's words cut the prank short and signaled the beginning of loud chatter along with the sudden appearance of food on the table. Yusuke yelped and pulled back, nearly falling off the bench with the sudden manifestation of food, including the bowl of mashed potatoes that now bore an imprint of the underside of his forearm, a good portion clinging to his skin from elbow to wrist.

Harry just laughed with the others and expertly dodged to the side as Yusuke punched a laughing Kuwabara, sending bits of mashed potatoes flying.

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 12_

End

-o-o-o-

**Author Notes:**

_Botan comforting Koenma_: I'm not a huge fan of the K/B pairing, though I will dabble in it. Interestingly enough, that was not the intent this time and I actually found myself annoyed with how, no matter how I wrote that scene out (and I did so three different times) I couldn't kill the K/B hints. So, if you read it like that as well, know it was Botan wanting to comfort Koenma as a friend or, if you would like, out of a one-sided love. I don't know if I'll do anything with Koenma in the future of this story, but if I do, I don't want to say I indorsed any K/B inclinations.

…_Voldemort…conducted a spell that shook the connections of all four world…several_ _of the metaphysical lines… had actually snapped…_ This is what Hiei and Kurama felt at the beginning of the story. Hiei would have felt the strain between the planets through his Jagan, while Kurama would have felt every plant draining of energy to keep the metaphysical power of Ningenkai from tearing apart (and therefore destroying the plane). Kuwabara felt something similar, but not nearly to the same extent as he only felt the psychic strain of Earth, rather than the plants.

_The Aurors: _There is no strong reason to try and remember each of the five aurors or their names. The only one who will play a main role in this story (more than an annoyance to the tentei) is Tonks. Her under-cover name is Abigail Winters and she's from America. That's about all you'll need to keep in memory from the sorting of the five.

… _Roy Brighenton of the Quigley School of Australia… _Movie reference. This is an ironic reference because in _Quigley Down Under_, the main character is called 'Roy' throughout the entire movie, which is not his name.

_Kobayashi Institute of Japan: _I was just looking for a random, common surname I could use to name the school that would most likely never come up again in this story and guess what I found? As a trekkie myself, I was laughing for a good few minutes and decided that, yes, I was going to name my pretend Japanese school this.

_Results of the Sorting_: I decided not to try and define originality with this section.

-Hiei would fit in Gryffindor for being loyal and having an honor code, but I believe he is better suited in Slytherin. Those who seek positions of power and have ambitions that mean more to them than anything else, belong in this house. Having lived on his own and for himself for his entire life, I believe his own goals come above the majority of others. Of course, there is always the ability to argue his place in every house, but I decided to play off his desires for empowerment.

-Yusuke and Kuwabara are shoe-ins for Gryffindor to me. You could argue Slytherin for Yusuke, but he doesn't have much ambition in my mind. He's more about doing what he wants when he wants, but not if it goes over the heads of any of his friends.

-Kurama: I believe your soul makes up a good portion of your personality. If he has two souls, he has two personalities. Youko is fit for Slytherin – ambitious, cruel, a schemer willing to do anything for his goals. Shuuichi is softer, more loyal and caring, and a lover of knowledge; he fits into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw better (this was one reason I concluded Youko and Shuuichi as separate souls in this story). So I played off of the second book's revelation that the sorting hat puts you where you want to be.

Plus, it was fun having a Hat get the last word against a Fox.

**End Author Notes**

Thanks again to my Beta, **KyoHana**, for getting this back to me so quickly, despite it being a longer chapter!

On a totally unmodest note: I GOT THE CHAPTER UP IN LESS THAN A MONTH! (big news for me). 8D

Hope you all enjoyed and please leave a review, if you would.


	14. First Day Jitters

**Disclaimer: **Still owning little of real value.

**Notes**: On _Places_: maps make me dizzy and I get lost looking for my sense of direction. So I'll be keeping the movements around Hogwarts as vague as possible, as I don't want to show a blatant mess up, despite the fact that I have read very good descriptions on Hogwarts grounds and interiors. Still, I'm going to mess up. When I do, and you spot it, please give me some leniency, as I am more than willing to state I am a complete dingbat when it comes to maps.

On _Schedules_: These are somewhat harder to figure out. I've looked through several references, and several very good sites, and spent more than ten hours working out schedules that I'm sure no one will notice are wrong. The problem is there aren't enough parts in the sixth book detailing a schedule to have a concrete one laid out for you, so I'm filling in the gaps however I feel suitable.

**Thanks to**: My fabulous Beta-reader, **KyoHana** who got this back to me in less than seven hours (despite her own busy schedule) so I could get it to you before I leave for vacation!! So thank her for having a chapter to read today!

**-o-o-o-**

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 13_

First Day Jitters (Symptoms Include Claustrophobia, Knotted-Tongue, Jaw-Aches, Wand Misplacement, and Bodily Injury)

**-o-o-o-**

Genkai was at the end of her patience.

She tended to think of herself as a relatively tolerant woman, not that she spared much thought to it. However, some part of her had to have some form of unending patience to have tolerated Yusuke during his apprenticeship.

Indeed, some never-ending supply considering she was still tolerating the Dimwit.

But now, her patience was on the precipice of running out. The idiot had vanished without warning and without a trace. Now, honestly, she wouldn't have allowed it to bother her so much; Yusuke was a moron who wouldn't realize that leaving – willingly or not – would make others around him search for him.

And since that wasn't likely to occur in that miniscule brain covered by a skull thicker than Reikai's Palace walls, the fool wasn't the type to leave bread crumbs.

She had come to expect that from him.

But not from Kurama. Granted, she allowed some reprieve for Kuwabara, who was as unaware as Yusuke, and she didn't even bother with Hiei. The pyromaniac suffering from severe social indifference was the least of her concerns as he'd never both to inform her that he was about to go missing.

The fox, however, was just the type to leave a clue as to his whereabouts, especially if that disappearance had been against his will. That brain was the reason he could be considered an asset to her moronic apprentice.

Perhaps if she hadn't settled so hopefully on that attribute, she wouldn't be so frustrated. The old master had spent the last week scouring all of Japan and the entirety of Reikai looking for that clue. And damn that fox to hell and back again for not leaving one when it was actually needed.

Now, if she stopped to contemplate it (which, as stated previously, she wasn't about to waste her time doing), she knew that her increased anger was due to her growing worry. The Dimwit wasn't the type to just disappear (unless coerced into it by fox or fire demon, which had happened on occasion) and usually showed up in a day or two when he did.

Of course, Puu was absolutely no help. According to Yukina, who had been in the temple the day the three disappeared from it, the flighty, bird-headed excuse for a spirit beast had thrown an absolute fit. It hadn't been encouraging at the time, what with him squawking for hours on end and trying to leave the temple.

And failing only because Genkai had kindly informed the bird earlier that day that she was leaving for several months and if he dared leave Yukina alone she would not only turn him into a stuffed turkey – extra crispy – but she would also feed him to all the demons living in her forest.

Fear that she'd carry through with her threat (which she would have) kept him grounded, though it didn't stop him from pacing…an odd thing to see a twenty-foot phoenix doing in the middle of a temple courtyard.

After having returned to the temple herself, she confirmed Yukina's report that repairs would have to be made to two of the gardens and one roof corner, which Puu had apparently taken out while 'pacing.'

At least the blue fluff-ball (the perfect mirror of its owner in stupidity) was still alive, which meant Yusuke was as well. Oh, he was better than alive, actually. After three hours of frantic flailing, destruction, and nervous panic, the bird had calmed down. For the last week, he'd sat amidst the garden debris, wings happily tucked in and neck curled beneath as he slept; occasionally raising his head to give a 'coo' towards a visitor and being absolutely no help whatsoever.

Stupid, useless penguin.

Genkai's lack of patience, inducing a stronger anger in her than usual, also led to creative nicknaming.

Which is why the poor teacher who met her as she stepped from the roaring green fire place (who the hell decided Floo Powder was a decent way to travel?) would most likely be avoiding her for the next few months. It wasn't Flitwick's fault that he was undersized, but it certainly didn't stop Genkai from calling him several very imaginative names not appropriate to repeat.

And not even a tiny bit of her felt remorse for it. She'd blame (translation: take it out on) the damned Dimwit, when she managed to find him.

As she was escorted down to the train by the poor professor who honestly wasn't more than a foot shorter than she (that didn't stop him from having to practically run to keep up with her curt steps), she was quickly informed that there had been an incident that needed her expertise. Hence the reason she was now walking away from the Castle which offered a warm bath and some reprieve after she had spent the last three hours trying to get to it (for her, a fireplace wasn't actually a convenient thing lying around) and all of this after a week of non-stop interrogations of demons and oni and humans and dead ends.

She swore, if she lived the rest of her remaining years without another 'incident' needing her attention, it would be far too soon. She was altogether over incidents.

In fact, that's all she had gotten since accepting that idiot as her successor. Dark tournaments, end of the world scenarios, and more pain-in-the-ass moments than she cared for. Not for the first time, nor for the last, she wondered why the hell she had agreed to teach him.

They reached the platform where the train, an obnoxious red, was still steaming from where it had pulled to a stop. Flitwick nervously glanced from her to it, unsure if he should leave without comment or ask if she needed anything else. Luckily for him, an Auror approached them quickly, ministry issued robes sweeping out behind her.

Flitwick left without comment, a particularly smart decision on his part.

The Auror, a female whose Scottish accent was so thick Genkai's translating device was having difficulty deciphering her words, quickly informed her of what they believed to have occurred.

There might have been a magical overload on the train – something that happened when a spell stopped for an unexplained reason (which really meant that left over residue from hundreds of previous spells interrupted the current one and ended it – of course, these fools would have to realize their magic left a residue to understand the cause of the problem). They believed that a magical build up within the train, caused by the multiple and complicated spells that ran it, caused an explosion of the supernatural sort. They weren't sure of the exact reasons for the spell breaking but had called her down for the expertise she might offer.

In other words, as Genkai was no idiot, the Ministry was fitting what happened on the train into their own little box of denial so it could be swept under the rug. Meanwhile, Dumbledore had called upon her to figure out what had really happened since he did not enjoy spring cleaning nearly as much as the Ministry of Magic.

Fine, she could deal with that.

She hadn't taken one step towards the train, however, when a wisp of energy caught her senses, pulling at the corner of her mind. Like a shadow that darts across your peripheral vision, too quick to catch as you turn your head and too fleeting to substantiate with proof or logic, the energy had disappeared by the time she turned towards it. She immediately and almost frantically (much to her chagrin) reached out for it mentally in hopes of grasping onto that particular reiki: a mix of rebellious enjoyment and determined loyalty that left a blue haze wherever it went.

He couldn't be here.

And he wasn't; the energy was gone, lost among the layers and layers of magic, residue of the last millennia, slowly dissipating beneath new layers constantly added on top every year. Two residues must have combined into one under the impressive weight of all the other old spells and created, for just a moment, something akin to Yusuke's energy.

Genkai gave an irritated huff. It was enough to give anyone a headache. How these wizards could walk ignorantly through it was beyond her.

She turned at the Auror's insistence, her name being repetitively called adding to the annoyance and she snapped back at the woman. She knew where the damn train was; it was ten feet in front of her, for Enma's damn sake. Though she received a petulant look in return, the woman had nothing more to say and left her to her investigation, though she remained nearby.

Rolling her eyes, the old woman stepped up onto the train, wondering what could be so pressing that she was summoned here the moment she returned; so pressing that the ministry wasn't even taking time to fabricate a _good _cover-story.

She had her answer the moment she stepped onto the train; this was no 'magical blowup'. Only an idiot would believe that story. But, then again, most of these idiots couldn't read ki signatures, so they would have no idea that it wasn't a supernatural accident, but an otherworldly intervention.

She didn't know how, nor did she really want to think about the consequences of it, but kage tenge had attacked the Hogwarts Express.

And being the old master that she was, she didn't need to take a further step into the hallway of the train to know that it hadn't just been her subconscious desperately searching for her successor that had led her to feel his presence outside. She didn't need to see the scorch marks of the rei gun or the multiple punctures in the soft walls of the train from a shotgun blast to know, without a doubt, that her dimwit had been here.

Genkai released a low intake of breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding for the last week. She's found them; the Reikai Tentai were at Hogwarts.

She turned, looking out into the fading light of the sun setting on the forest. From where she was, she could only just see the turrets of the far off castle where they would soon be feasting in celebration of a new year. Staring, eyes narrowed in annoyance, relief, confusion, contemplation, and anticipation, she wondered just what those four idiots had gotten themselves mixed up in this time.

-o-o-o-

Completely unaware of the old master currently cursing his name in dual vexation and respite, Yusuke stood with the rest of his new house as the feast drew to a close. It had been surprisingly good for school food, including a small mix of international dishes from the various countries from where the new foreign students hailed.

He didn't know where the food had come from, magically appearing on the tables like that, but whoever-they-were made decent kake udon. Though, compared to all the dishes they could have picked…it was rather boring.

He gave a nod towards Kurama and Hiei, though the latter wouldn't respond. It was nothing more than an acknowledgement and perhaps a 'good luck' sent their way before he and Kuwabara were swept out of the Great Hall in the slow throng of students. He tripped a couple of times on their walk, bumping into other students right along with Kuwabara as their eyes wandered to the high stone walls and European architecture.

Needless to say, after the Great Hall with its magically appearing and seemingly endless food and dessert beneath floating candles and a clear night sky, Yusuke was impressed with this place called Hogwarts (though he still felt it had a stupid name).

When they got to the moving staircases, for one of the few times in his life, his usual sarcastic retort died on his lips. He and Kuwabara all but ran to the edge of the nearest railing, looking down and then up as the staircases shifted and ground, students making their way across the immobile ones.

"That…is so frickin' cool!" Yusuke shouted, letting the sound echo up through the towering room housing the enchanted steps. Harry and his two friends came up beside them, caught between the embarrassment caused by the transfers (even the muggle-born first years weren't making as much noise about the magical castle) and the comical laughter that the two Japanese boys always managed to create in others.

Beside him, Kuwabara nodded, wide eyes staring straight up. "It's gonna' make getting lost real easy, though."

Yusuke just let out a bark of laughter, though he knew that the two of them would be doing that a lot. They couldn't even manage to stay on course in Japan, let alone in the maze of a magical school where things had a tendency to move. A lot.

"Don't worry," Harry chipped in, giving an encouraging grin. Both boys turned to the wizarding celebrity; they had noticed his new hesitation ever since the train ride – even they weren't that blind. However, he seemed to be speaking loud enough for the new students behind him to hear him as well. "If you get lost you can just ask the paintings."

Eyes – both foreign and young – turned to look at the wall of frames, each with an individual painting. And each one moving. Yusuke glanced back at Harry even as Hermione began explaining how they worked to some of the more fascinated first years. A voice called for 'Gryffindors to keep up' and the rest of the crowd began moving onto one of the staircases.

"Damn, those things really do move," the spirit detective commented, still eyeing the portraits with a smirk, before glancing to Harry. "I had half-hoped that screamy bitch back at the house was unique."

Ron burst into laughter at the reference to Sirius' very loud, very rude mother, hidden behind a curtain. It hadn't taken Kuwabara or Yusuke very long to realize that poking around Number Twelve Grimmauld Place could be hazardous to one's health. And eardrums.

Harry, slightly grinning, gave a shrug as they began moving with the crowd (while Hermione bristled at the rather rude language and elbowed Ron, who tried – not very hard – to muffle his laughter). "They're not all like that, so I guess she is kinda' unique in that way. Most of them are helpful." The Boy Who Lived paused, thinking of Sir Cadogan, who was no help at all when lost (or seeking entrance to the common room) or the Fat Lady, who had a bad habit of wandering off late at night or getting drunk on the holidays. Or singing, heaven forbid.

So, he amended his previous statement, "Well, some can be a bit annoying."

"When did you two get your translators, anyway?" Hermione asked, seemingly still a little put-out by Yusuke's less than polite description of Walburga Black, however horrible she was. The change in their voices – no longer so…well, robotic, and with more of a personal slang mixed in – clearly indicated that they were no longer under the imperfect translation spells.

Kuwabara immediately dug a hand down the neck of his shirt, clasping a chain and pulling it free. "Dumbledu-dore, uh, gave us these when he came and got us from those minstrel guys."

Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, a twitch of her head showing the slight annoyance at having to decode his words. "The _ministry_ men? You mean the Aurors, Kuwabara," she corrected, a habit of hers that had not lessened any, despite her two best friends' tendencies to mangle words as well.

"Yeah, those guys," the Japanese boy continued, not bothering to comment on her correction. Kurama did it all the time, and Hiei too, though the latter's was usually for the purpose of a scathing reply.

Kuwabara held the chain up, the pendent at the bottom glittering in the fire-lit staircases of the castle. Hanging from the fine gold links was a tear-drop shaped piece of glass rimmed in a golden metal, no bigger than an inch or two in length. It was perhaps half that in thickness and cut with a dozen or so facets on either side that twisted the light shining through, trying to break it into the seven colors of the visible spectrum and only managing iridescent flashes.

Upon receiving their new translators, both Yusuke and Kuwabara had quickly voiced their opinions of the gaudy, costume jewelry-like appearance.

"I thought it was an earring at first," the orange haired man continued, dropping it back down. He let out a boisterous laugh as he tucked the translator back under his shirt. "That would be embarrassing!"

"Yeah," Yusuke mirrored, "It's already girly enough."

"Well," Hermione began in her usual know-it-all tone that took over whenever she felt something seemed obvious. "It would have been silly to make them into earrings for four men. You would have had to pierce your ears. Besides, translators work as long as they are in contact with your body."

Yusuke made a face at the somewhat snooty correction to his thoughts. "They're still weird though," he retorted, crossing his arms behind his head as they left the stairs behind for one of Hogwarts' many hallways. "From what Dumbledum said, they translate what I'm thinking into English and then my mouth suddenly makes words."

Hermione visibly bristled at the mutilation of their headmaster's name and, while Harry wasn't fond of Urameshi's lack of trying to correct the mistake over the last week (indeed, now he just seemed to do it deliberately to annoy them), he had grown used to the disrespect. Yusuke had, as he realized some time ago, a problem with authority figures.

"It's weird," the boy reiterated as they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, the Heads of their house stopping in front of it. "I talk, and 'cause of the translator, the words sound like Japanese to me, but my mouth forms different positions, so I know I'm not speaking Japanese. Like, I try and say _kitsune_," here the translator abruptly cut off, his quick word forming in Japanese and becoming unintelligible to the three, "and it works 'cause I'm thinking Japanese, but when I think fox in English I get…well, _that_. Fox. That word that makes my mouth do _that_….Like I'm not in control of my lips or tongue. Fox."

He played with the 'f' sound his mouth was forming, teeth bumping against his bottom lip. It was rather comical to watch as he did it over and over again, the word fox coming out several times before the Head Girl called their attention. She was telling the first years of the importance of a password and why it was vital not to forget it, or give it to anyone not in Gryffindor.

Yusuke let go of the apparent attempts to control his mouth while under the translator and turned to the portrait, where the Lady sat in all her grandeur, staring down at them. Once the Head Boy was sure he had everyone's attention, including the foreign exchange students', he spoke in a clear voice, "Novus Orsa."

The Fat Lady paused for a moment, perhaps an effect for drama, before bowing her head and speaking in a commanding voice, "You may enter."

Honestly, Yusuke's and Harry's thoughts were mirroring one another with the overdramatic show but, Yusuke supposed all wizards were like that with their flair, and Harry just knew that the Fat Lady was a bit of a drama queen.

The head boy turned before entering the common room; "Remember, _Novus Orsa_. The passwords will change with time, but do not forget them or you will be unable to enter the Gryffindor Tower."

Yusuke glanced to Kuwabara, the two sharing the same thought. "I'm never gonna' remember that."

-o-o-o-

Meanwhile, eight floors down in the dungeons, Hiei and Kurama were surveying their new dwellings. It was rather cold and dark down there – something neither appreciated all that much. Kurama disliked the lack of natural sunlight (it was harder to grow plants without it – naturally, of course) and Hiei was just not pleased with being locked, underground, with fifty human children.

Delusional ones at that.

Kurama let out a sigh as he pulled the stifling school sweater over his head. Never one to leave his things a mess, he quickly folded the dark sweater before setting it down on the bed. He and Hiei stood amidst seven beds in what was apparently deemed their dormitory. Having seen the trunk reading _Draco Malfoy_ across its front only moments after entering the room, Kurama concluded they were being placed with the sixth year boys.

Logically, it made almost no sense; Hiei held the appearance of one much younger than a sixth year boy and, as Kurama had informed the Aurors and Dumbledore earlier that evening, he was somewhat older than one.

Coincidentally, it made perfect sense. Dumbledore was no idiot; Kurama already suspected he knew far more than he was letting on. It had been likely that they would get caught up in it: the battle of alignment raging between the wizarding world, shifting to focus on the four detectives as Voldemort sought to find them and Dumbledore sought to keep them from joining his side.

And being placed in this dormitory most likely meant there was someone in here that the wizened headmaster wanted them to keep an eye on. From the confrontation in the book store several days ago, the fox had no doubt as to whom.

Kurama sighed as a wiggling within his shirt and the brush of wispy fur, not quite corporeal, tickled his stomach. The redhead unbuttoned his white shirt (eyeing the new uniform lying on his trunk, complete with tie – something he was not looking forward to) before reaching down into the cloth and scooping out the shadow demon.

Bikou had been relatively well-behaved throughout the sorting and dinner, with a little help from Hiei. The fire demon had found a new and entertaining game of feeding the little beast bits of meat during dinner, having to use speed so that none of the other students would see the shadowy, less-than-solid black head peeking out of a very solid school vest. Oddly, between almost getting his fingers bitten off and the purring the damned thing would make every time it finished eating, Kurama wondered if the creature was starting to grow on Hiei.

Of course, he didn't enjoy the way the kage tenge would materialize inside his shirt with every new bit of food offered him (as a shadow demon, apparently, couldn't hold food in its mouth or stomach if said organs were incorporeal. Luckily for them, being a shadow demon, the thing could become as unsubstantial as that for which it was named, and do so at any point in time. Of course, the fox wasn't all that pleased knowing a flattened, incorporeal mass of deadly Netherworld being resided somewhere around his abdomen. But, at least it wasn't a wriggling mass of deadly, solid Netherworld being that would clearly be noticed.

The only reason Kurama was all right with keeping the shadow demon on him (as such a volatile creature was not truly suitable as a pet) was that the thing seemed oddly loyal to him. Well, that and he couldn't leave him alone for fear that he would attack a student (and they didn't need to explain why they knew how to purify wounds. It was lucky enough they'd gotten way with the train incident).

He gently sat down on the bed designated his by the trunk residing at the base of it. Bikou, curled up in his hand, upper body draped over his forearm, happily purring against his chest, quite content to sleep after his feast. Hiei mirrored he fox's movements, sitting down as well. Yet another coincidence gave the fire demon the bed closest to the door.

Those sorts of things only heightened the fox's reserved concern, what with how much Dumbldore actually knew and his knack of immediately using it to manipulate them. After all, Kurama was not the type of demon to believe in coincidences.

"What do you think?" he asked quietly in Japanese, the translator turning off as he mentally made the choice to speak in his native tongue. Red eyes shifted in his direction, glancing down at the curled shadow demon and then back up. Hiei had said little after their small exchange following the sorting. Kurama was used to his companion's periods of silence but had learned long ago to interpret them. This silence was one of anxiety and discontent. Hiei was an animal in unfamiliar territory – cautious of everything and happy with none of it.

"Of the school or the boy?" he rebuked, crossing his arms and meeting Kurama's gaze after red eyes focused, with emphasis, on Malfoy's trunk. He had clearly come to the same conclusion as the fox.

"Both."

"A joke."

"The school or the boy?"

"Both."

Kurama let a small chuckle escape, eyes never leaving Hiei's. "Care to elaborate?"

"I could get into this school with my eyes closed. All three of them," the fire demon expanded, his tone one of disgust and his expression a match. "Their idea of security is ridiculous."

Kurama nodded, though he granted them some reprieve due to the fact that Hogwarts had clearly not been magicked to defend against demons. Still, the narrow-minded majority of wizards wouldn't have bothered thinking of ways to get in through their defenses. They would have simply claimed it impossible and left it at that.

He ran his fingers through the shadowy wisps along Bikou's back, similar to hair. The creature flexed tiny claws, stretching out under the attention.

He had thought, however, that Albus Dumbledore was not of the majority of narrow-minded stick-wielders. Surely, he would have taken the time to make sure his fortress was secure against all threats. But, then again…he was the one who suggested (though they weren't truly given a choice) the four of them attend, after all. Conveniently placed in the two rival houses housing the two biggest rivals in the school.

"And the boy?" Bikou was kneading his claws against Kurama's arm, catching both demons' attention, but the creature wasn't breaking skin as it purred and pawed.

Hiei looked less than pleased, though whether it was due to the infuriating creature latched onto the fox's arm or the idea of sharing living space with a human brat was a mystery. Hiei's thoughts were more on the boy than the beast, however. He knew a schemer when he saw one, spending the majority of the last five years with the one sitting across from him. "He's a-" Hiei's mouth did something funny, moving spastically for a moment before the translator righted itself and he continued with a somewhat more automated, though strained, "git."

The fire demon frowned at the disconcerting feeling of having his mouth temporarily rebel against him and he let loose a low growl. He was not happy about the damn necklaces they were forced to wear. The word he had used in his mind was far more…acoustically satisfying.

"Hmm," Kurama made a noncommittal, intrigued sound. He was staring at Hiei's chest, approximately where the translator hung on its long chain, resting against pale skin. "I guess the English language doesn't have a word for that."

Of course, the fox wasn't sure exactly what Hiei had tried to call Draco Malfoy, but he had a feeling it hadn't been human.

"Stupid. A waste of our time."

Kurama looked back up to meet Hiei's eyes. "The school, the boy, or the translators?"

"All three of them."

The fox let out a slightly louder chuckle, leaning back to brace himself on his hands. Bikou released a high pitched growl as he was forced to slide off the fox's lap. With an indignant sound, he pounced back onto Kurama's thighs, turned in three and a half circles, kneaded his claws a little sharper into the boy's pants (for retribution) and sank down into a curled ball. Comfortable once more and feeling compensated, he closed his eyes and resumed purring.

The fox, wincing slightly at the pain of those claws (though still surprised the little creature had not drawn blood, yet again), shook his head and let his attention stretch outwards. There were still noises coming from the common room downstairs and he figured they would have some time before any of the other boys joined them for bed. For students, their first night back was one of celebration and reunion.

"We're not going back, are we?"

The question threw Kurama off for a moment as he focused back onto Hiei's face, having let his mind wander to catch some of what was being said downstairs. The fire demon wasn't usually the type to ask him such questions, being one to plan as they went rather than find out what was going to happen ahead of time. Especially not when it required asking Kurama for confirmation.

"You know as well as I do that as soon as Koenma discovers us, he will order us to stay."

"We're not his lapdogs." Hiei cut himself off at the last moment, the word _anymore_ almost getting tacked onto the end of that sentence. He had no doubt that Kurama had heard, however, and it irked him to acknowledge that they once were.

"No, we're not," Kurama conceded, leaning forward to remove his shoes. The disruption to his 'pet' got him a curious growl this time (as Bikou was not quite sure why exactly Master was trying to squish him between his chest and his legs). The shadow demon, feeling the sudden movement was not all that appreciated and probably not in his best interests health-wise, wiggled out from between the fox's hunched form and pounced onto the bed. As Kurama pulled off his second shoe, Bikou gave a disgruntled noise and settled, instead, on the pillow.

Despite the beyond peculiar behavior (he had never seen, heard, or read of a kage tenge ever acting as such before), the fox couldn't help the slight attachment he was beginning to feel towards the shadowy creature. Shaking his head, knowing it was not a wise idea to grow fond of something whose bite could be potentially deadly, he stood. Moving over to his trunk, he bent down, shifting through the contents until he had found his sleepwear, purchased with the rest of their clothing.

As he moved back over to the bed, he continued their earlier conversation, knowing Hiei was still waiting for more of an answer. "But leaving this country without Koenma's help would prove difficult, even for you."

He didn't say that it couldn't be done, because both knew it could be. Hiei could leave; it would take days of travel, but he could do it. So could Kurama, though the fox would be somewhat slower than the fire demon, unable to run at the same speed for so long. Hiei could probably cross the channel without a boat. With Kurama, the two would have to stow away on a vessel.

The fire demon did not reply. Interpreting exactly what Kurama had actually said with his words.

_You can leave, but I won't_.

It wasn't human honor – loyalty to Yusuke – that kept him in the school. Once the two had gotten away from the magical build up that wreaked havoc on portals, they would contact Koenma and the toddler could get the two humans out. Even Hiei alone could do this, and the fire demon knew it was not trust in him that kept Kurama from accompanying. There was something else, a reason he was staying that he was unwilling to tell Hiei.

They remained in silence as Kurama changed his clothes and climbed onto the bed. Bikou bounced up and down slightly as the pillow shifted under the fox's added weight. One yellow eye cracked open to stare at its master before sliding closed once more. The bed was rather comfortable, though nothing like Kurama's bed at home, and it certainly didn't have the clean, flowery smell of Shiori's laundry detergent. The fox gave a soft sigh, breathing into the pillow for several seconds before pulling the curtains closed around his bed, all but the side facing Hiei.

Reclining back into the mattress and snuggling under the covers, Kurama let his eyes close. It was a peaceful silence between them now, one he had encountered many times in his own home. For a moment, if he let himself, he could almost believe that he was back in Japan, lying down after several hours of homework and quiet chatter with Hiei. The fire demon settled in the window for the night, watching him sleep until his own eyes eventually slid closed.

The sound of boots being pulled off and chucked carelessly in the direction of a trunk stirred Kurama from his thoughts, but he didn't open his eyes. The presence of another at his bedside, followed by the dip in the mattress as another added their weight had Kurama scooting back slightly, making room. With a last moment of thought, he reached out and scooped the snoozing shadow demon off of his pillow.

Bikou let out, for the third time that night, an indignant growl, but quieted as Kurama pulled him closer to his chest, letting him fall back to sleep curled against the fox's warmth.

Hiei eyed the beast, not quite as content as Kurama was with the razor sharp teeth and deadly claws pressed right up against the fox's chest, nothing but a flimsy piece of clothing in between shadow and skin. He ignored it, however, having come to the conclusion some days ago that, for whatever reason, the stupid tenge was not going to hurt Kurama.

The truth bothered him almost as much as the closeness of the two.

The fire demon slid underneath the covers, red eyes staring at the fox in the dark. If Kurama was surprised that Hiei had pulled back the blankets and lay down beside him, his face didn't show it. "Hiei?"

"There aren't any windows."

Kurama tried to hide his smile, unsuccessfully so, as the two boys settled on the somewhat skinny bed and the fire demon pulled the remaining curtain shut. He wondered briefly if Hiei was referring to his habit of sleeping in the half-human's windowsill whenever he was in the Ningenkai, or if he had meant there was no easy access to a nearby tree. Letting curiosity get the better of him, he decided to find out. "I never took you for the claustrophobic type."

"Hn."

A little bit of both. Kurama was mildly surprised, having not given much thought to the fire demon being uncomfortable with small, underground locations. But, then again, he wasn't all that particularly happy with them, either. No windows meant no easy escape routes. It was, somewhat, akin to being cornered.

Of course, he didn't mention that Hiei could easily make it outside by use of the common room without being noticed. Nor did he mention that Hiei had a bed of his own.

Sensing the fox's amusement, the fire demon shifted slightly, their bodies, separated by only a few inches (and a deadly shadow demon), brushing with the movement. Yellow eyes opened in the darkness, but closed soon after, deciding they were simply too sleepy to deal with the intruding fire demon.

"Don't get used to this, Fox." Tomorrow night, he would make sure he was out on the grounds by the time this stupid thing humans called a 'curfew' was in effect.

"Of course not, Hiei." Kurama's reply was easy and without hesitation, though he didn't do a very good job of keeping the laughter out of his voice. It only got him a grunt and a light kick to the shin, both of which only made him laugh more.

They remained like that, nearly pressed up against one another in perfect silence and the darkness created by the closed curtains encircling them. Neither was sleeping, nor even tired, but neither wanted to deal with the human teenagers downstairs. At some point in time, just before the other boys entered the room, the curtains around Hiei's bed pulled shut on their own, hiding the empty mattress from sight.

In the darkness around him, Kurama watched as the purple light of Hiei's Jagan faded underneath the warded cloth. Five students, presumably the ones they would be living with for the remainder of the year, entered almost immediately afterwards, dressing for bed and talking quietly with one another before silence eventually took over, soon to be replaced with light snores.

There was a quiet stillness between them for a long time after the other boys fell asleep. And just as Kurama was drifting off, chin tucked against spiky hair and fingers lazily playing with shadowy fur, Hiei spoke. "This isn't our war."

Kurama paused, green eyes opening, as his mind immediately searched for the appropriate response. It failed to supply one that didn't have some defect in it. Several of the options presented themselves on the tip of his tongue, but he chose to remain quiet. The silence stretched out until Hiei knew he wasn't getting a response. A slight shift in his body and red eyes closed, feigning sleep if not, in fact, sleeping.

The fox remained awake for some time longer, green eyes staring out into the darkness created by the green fabric hanging around them. He knew what Hiei was saying – what he was asking.

_We have no reason to stay, so why are we?_

But he wasn't sure it was the right time for an explanation; wasn't sure if he even had one to give that wouldn't be faulted by the fire demon. He couldn't tell Hiei that yes, in fact, this might end up their – _his _– war, even if he couldn't say why.

So, like Hiei, he eventually fell asleep without an answer.

When he awoke the next morning, after finally being lulled to sleep by the fire demon's scent of cinnamon and pine, it was to Hiei sitting upright beside him, boots on but dangling off of the side of the bed (the fire demon had quickly learned back in Japan that boots were not to be worn atop bed covers). Kurama blinked several times, giving a small yawn as he took in the sight of the youkai, who he had thought would be gone before he woke up.

"Morning," he said after his yawn broke and he raised a hand to sweep his bed-arranged bangs out of his eyes. Those green irises glanced around, the two of them still hidden by the closed curtains. Light filtered in through the crack caused by Hiei's boots, extended off the bed. Eyes landed on Hiei's lap, where a curled shadow demon slept peacefully.

He raised a red eyebrow towards his companion, and got a clearly stated '_shut up'_ glare in return. "Hn." With the morning pleasantry returned in Hiei-fashion, the hiyoukai glanced away. "I found the baths."

-o-o-o-

Breakfast in the Great Hall was always a time for chatter, creating a light din between the heavy stone walls, lit by the early, yellow light of the morning sky. It was especially chatty on the first days of term, and this year was no different, despite the decrease in returning students with the ever-rising threat of death and destruction.

Harry, along with his two best friends, entered the Great Hall a bit later than they usually did on the first day of term (despite always having to readjust to waking earlier). This could be blamed on the two boys walking in behind the trio, still yawning and flexing muscles sore from sleep. Both boys had wet hair clinging to their foreheads and napes, though the majority of the water had been toweled off at this point.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were not morning people. Harry had learned this after several days at Grimmauld Place, where waking them had proved a challenge even for Molly Weasley.

Of course, when Kurama had entered the room carrying two classes of water (after thankfully catching Hiei's hand before he had managed to draw that sword of his) they had learned the easiest mode of waking the two Japanese boys.

And even after dispersing almost twice that amount atop the boys' heads via conjuring (the two jumping out of bed with yelps, spraying water everywhere) they would just grumble, then laugh, then tackle one another, punch each other for several minutes, and then separate, dress, and forget about the incident entirely.

Harry still didn't want to call them demons (and with their behavior, it was hard to take such a word seriously in application to these two), but he wasn't sure that was exactly human behavior.

As they headed for the Gryffindor table, Yusuke nudged Kuwabara towards the opposite side of the Great Hall. He turned to the three, calling out that they would be right there, and then continued to push the orange-haired teen towards the Slytherin table (despite indignant squawks about walking on his own).

The trio watched them somewhat cautiously. It made some sense that, despite housing placements, the four would still maintain an earlier friendship, but seeing two Gryffindors head so willingly (and almost cheerfully) to the Slytherin table, caused a mix of emotions to stir within them.

Ron's immediate response was anger; a sense of betrayal that their new housemates were seeking out the enemy. Hermione was contemplative and slightly worried; worried that the four would have to deal with house prejudices, worried that the two Slytherins were very likely to be demonic at this point, worry that Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't know, worried that _she_ didn't know enough about the four to actually have anything to worry about.

Harry was a mixture of the two – certainly unhappy about the house rivalry that the two ignored (despite the fact they weren't raised around it) but also extremely worried about their humanity, if any of the four even had it to start.

But there was little the three could do other than sit and try to enjoy their breakfast. At least schedules would be handed out soon, as evidenced by Hermione's excitement.

On the other side of the hall, three tables away, Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped behind their teammates, who had seen their approach from the entrance doors.

"Good morning, Yusuke, Kuwabara," the redhead greeted cordially, returning the breakfast roll he had been eating to his plate. The leader of the rag-tag team returned the pleasantry with a wave of his hand, bending down slightly to catch a strand of Kurama's red hair. It was damp and emanating the scent of lavender.

"Oi, you smell good," the detective returned leaning down to sniff at Kurama's hair.

In the background, Kuwabara groaned. "Man, Urameshi, you are so weird."

Yusuke ignored the comment, glancing over to notice Hiei had wet hair too, which actually caused his gravity defying hair to be a little less defying, with individual strands bowing under the weight of the water. "Eh, I know we need wake up showers, but I thought you two were always up with the sun."

Said fire demon let out a grunt to show his annoyance at the half-human.

Kurama merely smiled, pulling his hair out of Yusuke's grip. "Hiei found the baths this morning," he returned by way of explanation. "They are not too different from our _sento_ back home. Communal."

Brown eyes widened. "No fair!" the raven-haired leader rebuked, moving his arm to rest atop Kurama's head, giving him a support to lean onto (much to the redhead's annoyance). "I'd wake up better, too, if I had a nice long soak."

"Me too!" Kuwabara chimed in, though not daring to mirror Yusuke's movement, as it was Hiei in front of him and not Kurama. He wasn't suicidal. Especially since said fire demon was muttering something about how the two of them would only fall back to sleep.

"Well," Kurama replied, the slight strain in his voice showing his irritation as clearly as the fake smile, far too pleasant, plastered on his face. "If you would get up earlier, perhaps you could join us."

This immediately elicited a groan from both boys. "Why can't we just do it at night?" Kuwabara grumbled, annoyed.

Kurama glanced toward the fire demon beside him, who shrugged as he poked at an egg on his plate, sunny-side up. He turned back to the other two. "Very well, tomorrow evening then. After dinner." The comment seemed to go over well with both boys, who nodded happily at the prospect of something familiar to them: _hadaka no tsukiai_, the act of bathing for social intimacy. "Now, is there anything else you two needed?"

Yusuke didn't miss the obvious dismissal in Kurama's voice, and only grinned as he ignored it. "Actually," he drew out, suddenly switching to Japanese as he played with Kurama's wet hair, displaying nonchalance to the fox's annoyance, "we just wanted to check up on the plan."

"Plan?" Kurama echoed, following the language change as well. He was now trying to subtly tilt Yusuke's arm off of his head. Unsuccessfully. His leader was a stubborn brat.

"Yeah, anything we need to know?" Kuwabara asked, keeping his voice low, despite the fact that they were now speaking a foreign language to anyone sitting within fifty feet of them.

"Keep your mouth shut and don't fuck up?" Hiei's attempt at being helpful didn't go over very well, as Kuwabara tried immediately to punch the boy, who slid to the side, pressing his body against Kurama's, causing the oaf to miss and punch the table instead. Which resulted with him howling in pain and drawing half of the Great Hall's attention, especially the Slytherin table's already annoyed community.

Kurama sent both boys a light glare (perhaps a little heavier in the fire demon's case) even as Hiei slid back over and Yusuke just laughed, telling Kuwabara he deserved it. "Well," the redhead continued once the noise caused by their tallest teammate had died down to simple grumbles and death threats towards Hiei, "I would say just try and keep out of trouble. Our wands should be arriving this morning, and Professor Dumbledore seems to be having the 'transfers' go to whatever classes they want for the first week.

"However, judging from the coincidental placement of both our parties into the sixth year dormitories-" (Yusuke didn't bother asking how the fox knew he and Kuwabara had been placed with Harry Potter) "-I would suggest, for the sake of whatever it is we've gotten ourselves in the middle of, that you try and attend sixth year classes."

Yusuke seemed to contemplate this for a moment, finally coming to a conclusion complete with a frown. "But we don't know shit about magic, let alone six years of it."

"True," Kurama conceded, picking up his abandoned breakfast roll. Yusuke snagged a part of it, much to his exasperation. "But we are allowed to attend any class, from what I understand. If you can't do something, or a teacher questions you, simply say you are testing your limits of knowledge and trying to figure out where you belong, ability-wise."

"And if we end up stuck here?"

The question came, surprisingly, from Kuwabara. The redhead gave a small, ironic smile his way. "Then I have a feeling Dumbledore already has a plan for us, and any attempts at controlling the situation currently would be a waste of our energy."

"Okay then," Yusuke nodded, talking around the half biscuit in his mouth and straightening, finally removing his arm from Kurama's still-perfectly coiffed hair. "We'll just follow Potter around. That seems strategist-ish, right?"

"Very," Kurama agreed, trying to hide his light chuckle. "And points for both remembering and mutilating the word."

Yusuke gave the back of the fox's head a light cuff, though he laughed as well. The two, intent to depart with brief farewells back to their own table, were interrupted by several loud screeches of the feathery sort. The calls, belonging to the many owls that descended through the high windows of the Great Hall, had become awkwardly familiar to the four boys during their week-long stay with the wizards.

"Great," Hiei muttered as at least fifty owls soared through the room, dropping parcels and letters to students, hooting and screeching before taking off again. "And I thought one of those feather-brained creatures was bad enough."

He was referring, of course, to Ron Weasley's most annoying pet owl named Pig – a miniature feather-ball intent on making sensitive ears bleed. Of course, he didn't like the large ones when they delivered messages to the Order either, but at least they had the intelligence to remain respectively quiet around him.

A large, grey and black owl carrying two small, skinny packages soared over Kurama, dropping both of them. Yusuke caught the one intending to land on the fox's head (which had suffered enough abuse for the morning) while the redhead easily caught the other. Envelopes addressed in scrawling blue ink were attached to both and Yusuke tore his off first, with far less patience than Kurama.

_Dear Mr. Urameshi:_

"Kurama, I can't read this." Yusuke immediately gave up and handed the letter to the fox, who was opening his own. Green eyes scanned the English words before grabbing his leader's letter as well.

"The translators should work on written words, but you need to think 'Japanese' when you try reading," he explained, busy reading his own through the use of the magical charm around his neck. "They are from Mr. Olivander, who sends his regards as well as his thanks once more for your gift."

"Gift?" Kuwabara echoed, glancing between the two. "What gift?"

"He means his hair, moron," Hiei translated, now poking at the still uneaten egg with his fork. He threw the utensil down (simply not trusting food he couldn't see being cooked) and grabbed Kurama's box off the table, where the fox had set it. Still speaking in Japanese, he shook it, earning himself a light reprimand. "Its blood sealed."

"As he said it would be," Kurama replied, easily taking the box back, recalling their encounter with the wand maker.

"_I shall need a single strand of hair from both of you," Olivander said, gesturing between Kurama and Yusuke, "of your demon forms, if you would."_

_Kurama gave Yusuke a nod, before releasing enough of his energy so that Youko stirred, and then strengthened. He could feel his own consciousness, the part of him that controlled his body and mind, fading as his counterpart grew. The transformation was always the same; painless and with no real feeling. Any sensations he had were soon lost as he sank to the back of his own existence, replaced by the older soul of Youko Kurama._

_The fox demon, having no reason to block Shuichi from consciousness, took control as the human watched, like the fox often did, from the corners of his mind. _

_Beside him, Yusuke's hair had grown in length, a dark brown and unruly mass that stretched to his calves. Blue tattoos, etched eternally into his muscled form, were visible along his cheek bones, arms, and collar line. They flickered in and out of existence for several moments, as his eyes darted between brown and red, before settling in and remaining permanently there. His skin, stretched unnaturally across his muscles, specifically around his neck and arms, gave a slightly monstrous touch to his impressive form._

_The demon lord turned to the youko, surveying his taller form. There was a moment of silence in the shop, mostly founded by Lupin and Olivander's speechless surprise, before Yusuke let out a huff._

_His bangs lifted off his forehead before floating back down to settle in his eyes again. He gave another indignant huff, watching them do the same._

"_I hate my hair when I am in this form," he muttered, blowing up at the bangs again. "It would be no big deal if they would just stay the same length, but no, I have to look like the kid who got too close to a lightning rod."_

"_If it is any consolation, Mr. Urameshi," Olivander cut in, bringing attention to himself; his eyes were alight with wonder and awe, "the core of your wand will work much better with your new hair length."_

_Yusuke didn't exactly seem consoled. "So, uh, how much do you need?" _

"_A single strand will do."_

_Reddish brown eyes looked back at the wand maker, both eyebrows rising. "Why not just take all of it? Kurama is going to cut it off anyway."_

_Behind him, Hiei seemed to choke on something, causing the toushin to turn, checking on him. Hiei, indeed, seemed slightly red in the face, eye twitching and obviously disturbed by something. Confused, Yusuke looked back at Kurama, seeing a similar reaction on the milky smooth skin of his cheeks._

"_Yusuke," the youko began, soft alto replaced by the baritone, commanding voice of the Demon World's greatest thief. Of course, it seemed slightly strained, perhaps a further result of whatever the two demons were suffering from. "Perhaps you should not offer such a…rare and valuable item, without requesting payment of some sort."_

"_Payment?" the detective echoed, glancing back to Olivander. There was some sort of light in his eye that screamed predatory glee. It sort of freaked the hard-trained half-demon out. _

"_You idiot!" Hiei scoffed, crossing his arms as he attempted to recover the dignity lost by his momentary reaction to Yusuke's asinine suggestion. "Do you have any idea how much energy lies in a single strand of your hair? And you want to give him all of it?"_

"_Oh," Yusuke echoed intelligently, running a hand over the back of his head and the mass of hair there. "I guess that kind of makes sense…" He turned to Olivander, seeming a bit hesitant. "Uh…how much will you give me for it?_

_They left the shop nearly half an hour later with an overly-ecstatic Yusuke now owning a small fortune, magicked by Lupin to fit, weightlessly, in a pouch residing in Kurama's pocket. Hiei was still twitching at the fact that Olivander hadn't even paid a quarter of what Yusuke's hair was worth._

_Which had the old man practically dancing among his dusty wands._

"So we just smear our blood along the seal?" Yusuke asked, inspecting his own box as he, too, recalled Olivander's joy at his so-called gift (honestly, the amount of hair they constantly chopped off every time he went demon was a pain and a waste. He was happy to give it to someone who seemed so eager (creepily so) for it). At Kurama's affirmative, the detective lifted his thumb, bit into the skin until he drew blood, and smeared it across the seal.

It sizzled lightly, like acid burning through the paper that bound the box closed. The white binding, scribbled with ink, bubbled away, revealing the fine wood box beneath, closed by a small metal latch. Yusuke unhooked it as Kurama unsealed his own box, and opened it to reveal a wand, laid carefully within the cushioned insides.

Yusuke hefted the length of wood, which Olivander had concluded at twelve inches. The wand itself was composed of three separate woods, twisted together and then smoothed down to create a slow spiral of the three colors, white (with an oddly pink tint), light brown, and a rusty brown dotted with small imperfections where he guessed thorns used to be.

"Alder, Ivy, and Crusader Hawthorne," Kurama read from Yusuke's letter before handing it back to him. The fox's own wand, ten and three quarter inches, was made in a similar fashion, with two different woods twisted together and then smoothed down, leaving a slightly gnarled, but smooth exterior of red and grayish brown. "Mine is Rosewood and Willow. The willow bark must be what distorted it," he commented, running his fingers along the slightly twisting length.

"Aw, man!" Kuwabara suddenly interrupted, calling attention to himself once more. The other Slytherin students, already displeased at having two Gyffindors standing at their table for any length of time (though politely ignoring them due to harsh, red glares received in exchange for any looks in their direction), commented rudely about the outburst. Oblivious, Kuwabara continued, "I totally left my wand upstairs!"

"Idiot."

For once, Kuwabara ignored Hiei's comment and turned, grabbing Yusuke's arm. He started pulling the boy toward the large doors of the Great Hall. "Come on, I gotta' go get it!"

"Why do I have to come?" the teen countered, though not bothering to pull away from his orange-haired friend. "I'm hungry!"

"I don't remember that stupid password!" Kuwabara argued.

"Neither do I!"

There was a momentary silence, both staring at one another and no longer moving down between the two tables, before Yusuke gave an irritated sigh. "And I wanted to eat breakfast," he mumbled before trudging down the rest of the aisle and then over and up to the Gryffindor table. Kuwabara followed, the two stopping behind Harry as they mumbled an apology and a request for the password to get into the common room.

With answer secured (getting a laugh from Ron and a scolding from Hermione while they were at it) the two trudged out.

Back at the Slytherin table, Kurama glanced to Hiei, the fox holding two boxes in his hands. "Should I tell Yusuke he left his wand here?"

Hiei just snorted and went back to poking his eggs. "Let's see how long it takes him to figure it out."

-o-o-o-

"She's still not there."

Harry, confused, glanced to Hermione to see who she was talking about. He followed her gaze to the Staff table, alighting on the only empty chair. Their new defense teacher, whoever she was, wasn't present. Again.

He gave a light shrug, trying to remain hopeful that perhaps their teacher wouldn't be a complete nut this year. Anything was better than a schizophrenic, turban-wearing maniac; an incompetent ass; or Umbridge (there were no adjectives worthy of her horribleness). "Maybe she's preparing for class?"

"She's probably just nervous," Ron added, though he did so through a mouthful of food. "I mean-" he swallowed "-poor lady's got to deal with the knowledge that at the end of the year, she'll either be dead, insane, or run off."

"That's encouraging, Ron," Hermione concluded with some level of distaste in her voice, giving the boy a less-than-pleasant smile.

"Well, it's kinda' the curse of being our Defense teacher," the redhead continued, giving a slight shrug. "Almost none of them last the whole year, let alone come back for a second."

"He does have a point, 'Mione," Harry agreed, though with a slightly apologetic expression. "We don't exactly have the best of luck with defense teachers."

"Which is _why_ we need someone capable this year!" Both boys groaned as she launched right back into her speech, left off from the night before, about the necessity of a well-trained teacher. "We've got to learn to defend ourselves, or we don't stand a chance!"

"There's always the DA." The trio turned, somewhat surprised, to Neville, who had been listening the entire time. Unlike the previous night, distracted by an involved discussion with Luna before she departed for her own table, the trio now had his full attention. "We could start it up again."

They were definitely going to have to work better about speaking in private (or quietly). However, it was Neville they were talking about, a housemate and friend they would trust their lives too (just not their fine china).

"We could," Harry agreed with a nod, Neville smiling at the boy's concurrence. "And we will," he continued, glancing between his two friends for any objection or thought, "if it's needed."

"Guess we'll just have to see how good this Mushy-yama is." The trio turned to their other side to see that Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas were both watching them, the former having made this statement.

While Harry was glad to have both their support (especially Seamus, who hadn't been on the best of terms with him this time a year ago), they were definitely going to have to work on speaking more privately.

"We won't have to wait long," Dean added, holding up the schedules McGonnagall was passing out, loaded with N.E.W.T. classes, and comparing his to Harry's and the others'. "Looks like we all have Defense first thing."

-o-o-o-

They were on their way to meet the mysterious Professor Mushayama, discussing the soonest possible chance they would have to speak with Dumbledore about their visitors, when two of the said guests ran into them (quite literally). After the detangling of limbs belonging to Kuwabara and Ron (the main causalities of the run-in), the five headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Neville had gone ahead with Seamus and Dean, agreeing to meet them in the classroom. Harry wasn't at all surprised that the four of them had chosen to continue with Defense. Neville, especially, had shown a keen understanding while learning under his own hand in the DA last year. And the battle at the Ministry only seemed to pique his insistence at learning to defend himself.

Neville actually talked excitedly about Defense, which he now ranked as his second best subject (the boy would have been the top of the class in Herbology if Hermione wasn't there…and if he didn't usually pass out a couple of times every year).

Yusuke and Kuwabara were talking to one another in Japanese, which might have put Hermione, at the very least, on edge. But seeing as their words sounded more like stabs at one another, usually followed by a brief round of punching (and missing on Kuwabara's part), it didn't seem to be anything devious or worthy of suspicion.

The two stopped, however, when they rounded the corner to the Defense hallway. Outside the classroom, Kurama and Hiei stood, talking to none other than Draco Malfoy.

Harry paused briefly, glancing to Hermione and Ron. That couldn't be good. The last thing they needed was the Death Eater- in- training to start convincing their possibly-demonic guests that Evil was the new Good.

"-hope you do," the blonde git was saying, a trademark smirk on his face that always made Harry sick to his stomach. The heir to the Malfoy name was just as smug and pretentious as the rest of his line.

"Whatever it is you're offering, I'm sure he could do without, Malfoy," Harry cut in, biting the words out as he came to stand beside Kurama. Had he not been so focused on his nemesis, he might have seen the look of disapproval Kurama cast his way. But he had bigger pests with which to deal.

The Slytherin boy sneered at him, the hand he had been retracting (from a handshake, unbeknownst to Harry) immediately settled at the pocket of his robes, fingers tapping the wand through the fabric. "Whatever it is, is none of your business, _Gryffindor. _ Or does your blind nobility now include interrupting conversations with _my_ housemates?"

Harry could feel his ears reddening with anger. It didn't matter that Kurama and Hiei ended up in Slytherin – they had arrived at Grimmauld Place first, and Harry would be damned if Malfoy won them over. "Only because conversations in _your_ house end up with the participants in Azkaban."

Cold grey eyes widened slightly at the insinuation and Malfoy snarled, pulling his wand. Harry met the move instinctively, feeling Ron do the same beside him.

A curse was on the tip of his tongue before a small but quick burst of wind, not even enough to ruffle his unruly hair, threw him off guard. Malfoy seemed to be in a similar state of confusion, but quickly raised his hand, ready to cast his spell once more, only to stop. His pale hand, still clenched, held no wand.

Harry, surprised, glanced to his own arm, still in mid-rise for the curse he'd been prepared to throw. His wand, something that had become almost an extension of him, was nowhere to be seen.

The three boys, as Ron seemed to be missing his as well, glanced around in confusion. Harry was about to start patting his pockets when a grunt, followed by the 'tsk'-ing sound of someone clearing their throat, drew their attention to the once-empty space before them.

A very, very short woman stood between Draco and Harry, glaring at the participants of the almost-duel. She had faded pink hair that hung to her shoulders, curling slightly in a haphazard way that just resulted in uneven waves. For a moment, Harry entertained the thought that she must work hard to get her pink hair to fade like that, matching her old age, shown by the wrinkles in her face.

Brown eyes interrupted any further thoughts on the matter as they bore straight through him, making him feel the guilt and reprimand of every action he'd ever done wrong. And with his Gryffindor status for breaking rules, that was a lot of guilt. He wasn't sure he'd ever seen eyes like that before, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to again.

"How did you-!?" Malfoy's shocked exclamation drew Harry's eyes away from the old woman and to the blonde prat. He was staring at the woman as well, but more so at what she was holding.

Three wands, clenched in one of her fists, arms crossed over the Asian tunic she wore.

However, any explanation she might have given as to how exactly she'd acquired their wands was interrupted by a loud, shocked, and obnoxious shout.

"Obaa-san?!"

Harry thought he saw a smirk on the old lady's face – just the smallest upturn of one of the corners of her mouth – before she was suddenly gone and Yusuke was crashing into the stone wall of the hallway.

Kuwabara, having been standing slightly behind his friend, was caught up in the movement and found himself knocked off kilter and onto the ground. Hermione and Ron, having been standing beside him as well, were both physically shocked; the redhead flailing back with a yelp of instinct and ending up on his bottom against the hard stone as well.

Kurama, side stepping the whole mess (and Hiei, who conveniently vanished and reappeared on the other side of the redhead) caught Hermione as she stumbled back.

Against the unmarred stone wall, Yusuke was slumped on the ground, one leg drawn up in a failed attempt to catch his falling body. He was holding his jaw, one eye clenched closed in pain, the other glaring at the small woman, who was back between Draco and Harry, as if she had never left. But Harry was sure she had. For a moment, she had disappeared, and then Yusuke had inexplicably gone flying, taking half the hallway's occupants with him.

"Itai!" Yusuke bit out, as if it were a swear word. No longer using the translator, Harry and the other students of Hogwarts were lost to the conversation that followed. "What was that for, you old hag?"

The pink-haired lady moved over to the teen, brandishing the fist not holding their wands captive. Although they did not understand the words being said, it was clear the woman was not the type with whom to trifle.

"I spent a week searching all of Japan and Spirit World for your asses and you end up _here_!" She cuffed Yusuke upside his head, the teen giving a wince and another biting swear.

"That wasn't my fault! Blame their stupid Lord Voldy!" The students gathered in the hallway, watching this spectacle with curiosity, froze at the beginning of a name they knew very well. It was buried in a puddle of jargon, but they heard it clear as day, and it did little to stem the suspicion in Harry's, Hermione's, and Ron's eyes. Other students, Slytherins included, stared in disbelieve, others in distrust.

Because it was nerve-wracking when you knew someone was talking about the enemy, but you didn't know _what_ they were saying.

Although, Yusuke wasn't exactly the type to keep his emotions out of his voice. Luckily, that helped them to determine somewhat that whatever he was saying, he probably wasn't so happy with Voldemort either.

But still.

"Genkai-Shihan," the softer, calmer words drew attention away from Yusuke and the woman standing above him and over to Kurama, who was assisting Hermione back to stable feet. As the witch pushed off of him, blushing lightly, he turned to the short woman and gave a small bow.

The old woman gave a nod in return, and Harry decided her name must be Genkai. Or Shihan. Or maybe her full name was Genkai Shihan. Or…they switched names around in Japanese, didn't they? That's what Kuwabara and Yusuke had said. So Shihan Genkai, perhaps?

"Kitsune." Harry had heard Kurama called that before, by Hiei prior to the translation spells. It must be a common name for the redhead, another title of some sort. The Boy-Who-Lived was beginning to realize just how many titles the Japanese had.

"I apologize for not notifying you, and for the worry we caused, but we were not capable of contact," Kurama explained calmly, though he was anxious to clear the crowd that was watching them and perhaps speak with the temple master in private. "We have been unable to leave England these last nine days and had no choice in our arrival, either. We were summoned by their Dark Lord."

Sharp brown eyes narrowed at the last of Kurama's words, watching him carefully, weighing what he said. "I was under the impression wizards didn't summon humans."

"I am under the impression he was attempting to summon demons."

Harry had no idea what was said (similar to almost everyone else in the hallway), but he knew that this Genkai (or Shihan) didn't like whatever it was. Her eyes narrowed further and she seemed ready to argue, or perhaps swear (if Yusuke knew her, maybe that's where he got his foul mouth from) but instead turned curtly away from the four Japanese boys and towards the classroom door.

In biting, perfectly enunciated English, she addressed the entire hallway and made it quite clear just who she was. "Get in the classroom. All of you. You're wasting my time."

And with that, their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher entered her classroom.

Yusuke picked himself up off the floor, and followed behind. The small crowd moved out of the way for him, though most of them were eager to enter the classroom as well, if only to avoid any similar… _discipline_. The Japanese boy fell in line with his friends, still holding his jaw and mumbling, "Stupid old hag just _had_ to kick me."

Harry glanced at his two friends heading into the classroom behind the four Japanese boys and their most mysterious teacher. Who still had his, Ron's, and Malfoy's wands.

By the glances from Ron and Hermione, it was decided; they would talk to Dumbledore as soon as possible.

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 13_

End

-o-o-o-

I'm so excited for Genkai's first lesson that I've already typed most of it out. I was kind of bummed I didn't get to include it in this chapter, but I was bound and determined to get through the night, morning, and introductions with Genkai. And this chapter was already really long. I mean, I use small font when I type, and I'm getting eighteen pages.

And Genkai's lesson will be lengthy, so I figured it was best to stop here.

Hope everyone enjoyed! I will be on vacation, without internet, for the next ten days, so any responses will come afterward.

**Author Notes**:

_Draco_ – I had an entire multi-page-length meeting with Draco in it, but decided I seriously disliked it as well as it's placing. Draco's main interaction with Kurama and Hiei will come as a recap next chapter. A warning: I like a craftier Draco, one who isn't evil, but seeking his own ambitions and trying to get out of the shadow of his father.

_Sento: _There is supposed to be a dash mark above the 'O' (I have no idea what that mark is called, by the way) but and my computer won't work together to recreate it.

A sento is a public bathing house. This is not an onsen, as the water for the baths is heated unnaturally and delivered by faucet. To be an onsen, the bath must have 1 of 19 natural chemicals and must reach a certain temperature naturally before it can be heated artificially. I would have loved to compare Hogwarts baths to an Onsen (because most anime fans know what that is) but alas, I doubt the water is being naturally heated in a magical school in Scotland.

_hadaka no tsukiai: _Literally means "naked communion" and refers to the traditional Japanese belief that physical proximity/intimacy brings emotional intimacy, good for breaking down barriers and getting to know people. Though this belief has been on the decline, some Japanese teens becoming embarrassed to be seen naked in a group bath, I am going to believe that our four boys (such good traditionalists) will have experienced this (or at least aren't exactly 'shy').

Inspired by **Key and Wolfstar SCA**, this will play a small role in the story.

_...bit…until he drew blood_…. We're going to ignore the laws of reality, since this is fantasy/anime. Yes, I am aware that biting your thumb doesn't exactly work all that swell-ly. Trust me, being a nerd (and after watching enough anime like Naruto) I decided to test the credibility of biting ones thumb to draw blood.

I had a very sore, purple thumb the next day and no blood. (yes, I know my intelligence is displayed by such experiments, don't remind me) People, if you're not a half-demon or have a fox soul in you, use a knife or pin (or better yet, don't draw blood!)

_Bikou_: is technically an _it_, but I will also refer to him as '_he'_, in case anyone has noticed my pronoun changes. This is mostly so nothing becomes redundant.

_Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan_: There aren't references to what happens to these two after the battle of Hogwarts, so I've decided, for the sake of writing and including as many HP characters as possible, that these two will be taking N.E.W.T. level Defense and Potion classes (that one I can at least claim Seamus from the movies) for their future careers. They might get thrown into another class, if I see fit.

_Luna and Neville_: Luna's career interests lie in becoming a naturalist. Unfortunately, she's a year younger than Harry, so she won't be in the Defense level N.E.W.T. class with them. Still, she'll be participating in any DA club activities that occur, so she will have a focus in Defense, despite the fact that her higher classes, when she reaches sixth year, will be in Herbology and CMC. Neville will continue with N.E.W.T. level Defense, Herbology, and Charms (as per the Exceeds Expectations or Outstanding O.W.L. results).

_Peeves_: will show up in this story. I'm sorry he didn't make the standard appearance on the first night, but he was off terrorizing Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, since he just didn't end up fitting in well where I had them heading to the common room. But he does get a role in this story.

_Genkai-Shihan_: Shihan is another honorific for a Martial arts master, and as **Key and Wolfstar SCA **pointed out, it's how they refer to her in the show as well.

**End Author Notes**:

Thank you all for reading and I hope you review!


	15. First Day Jitters Pt II

**Disclaimer**: See previous chapters

**Notes**: Thank you everyone who wished me a good vacation, it was very enjoyable. I'm quite sore from it (too much tubing…no skin left on my elbows or knees) but had a great time. I hope you enjoy the update; hopefully I'll make one more in before the hectic season of school starts up again.

**Warnings**: My god, I actually managed to throw in some of that Hermione/Ron I mentioned (what, like 9?) chapters ago!

**Thanks to**: KyoHana, for her ever faithful beta-ing and therapy sessions (yes, that's right, you just became my therapist too. I told you when this all started that it wouldn't end well).

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 14_

First Day Jitters Pt II ((Un)Recommended Remedies: One Homicidal Japanese Martial Arts Master Hired by a Senile Old Man)

**-o-o-o-**

Draco entered the N.E.W.T. Defense class behind Minamino, his new dorm mate. A sneer lit his lips as he cut in behind the two Slytherin transfers, noticing that Potter hung back so as not to enter the classroom too close to him. He preferred it that way, yes, but Potter was such a snob and a busybody.

What gave that nosy Gryffindor the right to interrupt his conversations with his 'holier-than-Merlin' attitude. As if Draco was really plotting the destruction of the world with Minamino and Jaganshi in the hallway outside of Defense Class. Potter might have the bravery of the lion he wore on his chest, but he had the intelligence of a badger.

He had wanted to speak privately with the three new transfers in his house as soon as possible (without looking hasty, of course). He'd talked with DeLuca last night, as she was willing to do far more than just converse with her housemates. Her devious nature was not one that remained hidden.

But Minamino and Jaganshi had immediately headed up to their dormitory (which Draco discovered later was his dormitory as well, magically expanded to comfortably fit seven) whilst he was detained, expected to play his part in the politics of family and house. By the time the blonde retired to his bed, the two were already asleep with the curtains drawn about their four posters. The next morning, both were gone by the time he awoke.

Of course, he'd gotten his chance, just like he knew he eventually would, outside of Defense where the two were idly talking in quiet voices with one another. He had followed them as soon as they'd left the table that morning (though, again, without looking as if he were following, but simply heading towards class as well) so as to catch them alone (before they reunited with those obnoxious Gryffindor transfers, yet again).

It had gone well, until Perfect Potter felt the need to be center of attention, as always:

_He immediately stuck his hand out, as per his customary greeting, when he approached the two. "I'm Draco Malfoy," he began, cold gray eyes glancing between the two. The shorter, black haired one turned to the redhead with a high-and-mighty air of 'you're not expecting me to take that hand, are you?'_

_Draco ignored the cast off, as it was a common show of superiority that he would not take offense to just yet. This was merely a Slytherin's way of sizing another up: finding which was superior and which should learn his place. And he would teach the spiky-haired kid (why waste magic to make your hair look like _that?_)in which of those two categories he belonged._

_It was Minamino (Draco was very good about remembering the names of potential associates), who seemed perfectly adept at interpreting Jaganshi's looks, and who finally reached out and shook his hand. "Kurama Minamino." _

_Malfoy's mind immediately jumped on the response, analyzing every angle of it. His shake had been firm – a challenge to conquer him – and he met his eyes without hesitation. No pleasantries meant he wasn't spineless or under the belief that polite behavior resulted in equality. Had he, perhaps, remarked that it was a pleasure, Malfoy would have immediately placed him under the category of future minion, someone who would look up to him as most in his house did._

_With his natural born leadership skills, Draco was no idiot. He could clearly see that the man before him, with such calculating green eyes, was not one to bow. He remembered him from the encounter with Potter and his dumb duo at Flourish and Blott's earlier in the week. This boy had stopped his two companions (_mudblood Gryffindors_) from joining in the duel. Draco's interpretations of the group at that time had been something along the lines of them being a bunch of foreign chumps._

_But now, looking at the two that had made it into Slytherin (Jaganshi, who could somehow apparate and Minamino with his clear intelligence); Draco wondered if his initial judgment had been hasty. It was clear, despite his immediate dislike of the red-eyed boy (though from his skill and age, he might be a natural at magic usage) and his previous underestimation of the redhead (no one that feminine could hold an intimidating first impression), that the two might actually be worth something._

_And seeing how Minamino had taken over the moment his shorter companion looked his way, he guessed they were acquaintances of some sort. An association with Minamino, even one so simple as an exchange of favors, could very well pull Jaganshi right along behind, if their alliance was close enough (friendship was a rare word among Slytherins, as it implied a trust not so easily given or earned in their House)._

_Thoughts circling on how he could earn their favor without submitting himself, as it was not in his character to do so, Draco gave a smile worthy of the Malfoy name. "I'm a Slytherin Prefect," he began, throwing in a little of the boasting that came naturally with his blood and pointing to the badge on the chest of his robes. "If you need to know anything, I can teach you."_

_They were dangerous words, but the blonde boy had a feeling playing the safe side with Minamino wasn't going to get him what he wanted. Everyone in the Slytherin house knew how to manipulate or pull and push to get what they wanted. It wasn't so much in an evil sense, as all the other houses deigned it be, but in an ambitious sort._

_Draco wanted to be someone. He wanted to be powerful and in charge and never bow to another ever again. For that, he needed connections; people willing to do favors to further him in that goal. Now, with such a calculating mind as his, he was well aware that gifts were not granted for nothing in this world. One had to push a little in order to pull, take a step backwards before taking two forward. Things had to be given in order to be taken. _

_Life was a game of win-the-witch, and he expected to come out with the score in his favor._

_Watching those green eyes across from him, very worthy of the house their owner now belonged to, he knew that Minamino thought so as well. It would be a battle fought with a double-edged sword, each seeking mentally to trump the other and claim superiority._

"_I'm sure I'll ask," Minamino replied, giving a gentle smile that Draco didn't believe was genuine for a second and took back his hand. "If any questions come up, that is."_

_The reply was as insinuating as his own – as he suggested he held superiority in Slytherin House, and what one would need to survive in it, Minamino made it perfectly clear that he would need no lessons or help, thinking himself fully capable, perhaps more so than Draco, to survive. _

_The thrill of a challenge stirred in his stomach and he found himself truly smirking, rather than calculating the appropriate expression carefully before giving it. "I hope you do."_

As the room began to fill with all twenty or so N.E.W.T. level students, the blonde took his seat with the other Slyetherins, watching Minamino and Jaganshi sit beside one another at the middle table at the front of the room. As a position more fitting of a Ravenclaw (or that ridiculous mudblood Potter carried around), Draco was intrigued by the boys' studious intent. He did, however, make a note to himself to make sure Minamino and Jaganshi understood it was more…politically correct to sit with their own house.

A form of exhilaration stirred in his stomach as he watched others file into the classroom. He joined periodically in the mutterings of his housemates, mostly about the odd professor (who had his wand, damn it) but wasn't really listening to them. The blonde had never encountered a true challenge in another student that he wasn't sure he could conquer, not even from his upper classmates. Despite the Slytherins' ambitious and often sneaky ways, Draco was a natural-born thinker, able to analyze a situation and then take action. It made it effortless to outsmart his fellow classmates, when he was easily two steps ahead of them at all times.

Of course, being rich and of good lineage hadn't hurt.

But now, he had another right in step with him, and possibly pulling ahead. Whoever he was, he liked this Minamino and the game he presented. Of course, Jaganshi's game of shadowing the redhead's every move was going to get annoying very quickly, especially with all the glares he sent Draco's way.

-o-o-o-

As Harry and Ron took their usual seats in the Defense classroom, sitting as far back as possible with Hermione one table behind them, Professor Mushayama walked briskly down the far left aisle before curtly spinning at the front of the room to face them all. Her brown eyes, daring them to speak when she was about to, hushed the entire room in a matter of seconds.

"I am Professor Mushayama," she gave her last name as if she had tasted something that did not agree with her and therefore spat it back out. "You'll call me Professor or Genkai. I'm not going to answer to Mushayama, so don't bother with it."

Harry and Ron exchanged concerned glances. Her aged voice was biting, like a drill sergeant commanding her troops rather than a teacher preparing her students for life outside school walls. Umbridge was coming to mind, despite the _very_ different tones of voice.

"As I understand it, this class was designed to teach you how to defend yourself against any danger you might encounter in your lifetime," she continued, eyeing each one of them while her body remained stiffly at attention, arms crossed behind her back. Slouching forms stiffened, straight-back in attention, as those eyes passed over them. "If I also understand correctly, you have learned almost nothing of it."

Several students looked like they wanted to argue, Hermione included, but for once, the Hogwarts' smartest kept their hands down.

"The credibility of your defense lessons has been, to put it quite simply, slacking." In the back of the room, Yusuke winced, remembering so many bruises and broken bones and sleepless nights that started all with that last word. "We are going to fix this."

The whole room jumped as Professor Genkai pulled her arms out from behind her back. Each student was wound as tight as a foot soldier obeying that drill commander. The pink-haired teacher eyed them each critically and more than one student in the classroom feared some form of physical pain was soon to come.

"First homework assignment." Several students actually groaned, immediately forgetting the tension as Professor Genkai suddenly seemed not a drill sergeant but another professor, ready to roll out the rumored N.E.W.T. level homework load. However, under the quick, assessing brown gaze, those students shut their mouths.

"First homework assignment," she repeated, moving over to the chalkboard centered, on wheels, in the front of the room. The desk that had been there in previous years was gone, as were all decorations around the room and pictures of any sort. It was plain, to put it simply. The professor turned once more when she reached the chalkboard, not using it as she continued, "You may not use a wand outside of a classroom, for any reason, from this point on."

The class did not give a collective groan, as warranted by the usual homework assignment. Instead, half of them erupted in argument, a few even standing to declare that she was insane. Genkai let them holler and dispute (though it was rather one-sided as she said nothing in return) and instead turned to face the chalkboard.

Three wands were set down on the wooden lip, and Harry's eyes lingered on his precious weapon, an extension of himself.

Ron, who was one of those clearly protesting the unheard of assignment, turned to him. "This is it, Harry – it's Umbridge all over again. Only 'stead of not teaching magic, she's banning it completely."

Harry just nodded, nerves stinging with the anger he felt (why had Dumbledore gotten this woman to teach them, in a time when they needed someone so desperately to help?) and the dread that was pooling in his stomach. Professor Genkai, whether she had heard Ron's outburst (to which several of those nearest to them were nodding and whispering in agreement), turned to them once more.

Her sharp movement silenced half the protestors, and her sharper words did the rest, "Shut up!" Hermione let out a small gasp at the crude manner of speaking to the students. Genkai was eyeing each of them again, daring them to speak in return. "You are too dependent on a weapon that is not attached to your body – a weapon that is easily removed."

Harry glanced at Ron, wondering where she could possibly be going with this. If she banned wands, she banned their magic, which made them defenseless and taught them nothing.

"If I'm going to teach you to defend yourself," she continued, each word perfectly pronounced so as to create no room for question or misinterpretation, "then I'll teach you how to defend yourself without magic, so you won't get yourself killed because your butterfingers couldn't hold your sticks!"

Ron sent a wide-eyed look to Harry, before both turned to see how Hermione was taking this…lecture. Hogwart's brightest witch was sitting, open mouthed and gaping like a fish at their new professor.

How dare she speak like that to students!

Harry could see Hermione beginning to boil over and sent her a quieting look, begging her not to lose her control in front of this teacher. With their new Drill Sergeant Professor, he really didn't want to see what she might do if Hermione started talking back. Detention wasn't something they had time for tonight – they had to see Dumbledore.

If only to ask what the bloody hell the old man had been thinking.

When the girl slowly settled back down, and the rest of the classroom remained in shocked silence, Genkai continued, "Magic makes you lazy. And a lazy defense will get you killed." She crossed her arms once more – this four-foot, shriveled old woman who was capable of scaring an entire generation of wizards into silence. "Therefore, you will learn that you don't need magic to solve everything, and an excess use of it only wastes energy when you can get off your lazy asses and do it yourself!"

This time, Hermione actually squeaked, gripping the edges of her table with white-knuckled hands. This professor had no right to address students in such a…a…horrible manner! She was a teacher, an elder who should command respect, not put the students down! This was worse than Umbridge – at least she only spread ignorance and uselessness.

Professor Genkai moved from her position, taking the chalkboard and moving it to the side of the classroom with one hand. Somehow, even without her looking at all of them, each felt her powerful gaze still on them. Several tried to straighten up further, only to find they were sitting in the best posture of which a body was capable. With the chalkboard, still holding three wands, off to the side and leaving the front of the classroom wide and open, she turned to them once more.

"Until I tell you otherwise, anything done outside of classes will be done without magic."

Malfoy, eyeing the woman distastefully, was never one to care about a teacher's so-called respect and spat out, "That'll take forever. What about homework?"

Ron nudged Harry, muttering, "For once that git has a good point."

Harry, nodding, would have responded except for the mutter that came from his side. "Don't argue with her, pal, it only makes it worse." One table back sat Yusuke. His arms were tucked behind his head and he was staring at the professor with something akin to annoyed respect. Though he hadn't spoken loud enough for many to hear, more to himself than anything else, it still caught Harry's attention.

Genkai, who gave a sharp look in the Japanese boy's direction (Harry decided she had to have better hearing than Mad-Eye Moody), but continued, looking back to Malfoy. "There are no exceptions." When the class began muttering again, she slammed her fist into the chalkboard; silencing all of them with the forceful crack it created. "Defense is not for slackers! If I find that one of you used your wands outside of a class, you will fail mine. Is that understood?"

Well, there went asking for his wand back. Ron sagged beside him, jaw practically lying on the table at which they sat. How could Dumbledore possibly have hired this woman for their own good? Had he finally lost it?

Behind them, Yusuke pulled his arms away from his head, settling them in his lap and scooting back to put his feet up on the table. "I told you so."

Again, Genkai sent the boy a sharp look, but once more said nothing, instead moving back to the center of the open space. "Now, we have a lot to cover today, so shut up and stand up."

The students, confused but quiet (too afraid to say anything), stood. Harry took the opportunity to glance back at Hermione. She was visibly fuming, glaring with an anger he had rarely seen in her eyes. But, then again, when it came to a good education, you just didn't mess with Hogwart's brightest.

"You all seem to learn best by doing, according to the only years you actually learned something, so that's what we're going to do." They stood there, glancing uncertainly at one another. "Well, get moving! You're not going to be defending yourselves against desks. Get them out of the way."

Harry blinked at Ron (how the hell were they supposed to know they should move the desks?) but then took one end of the table in front of them. His best friend took the other and together they shoved the wooden structure towards the side of the classroom, the other students following suit. It took them some time to push all of the tables flat against the wall, what with the fifteen on their side piling up and creating a sort of traffic jam.

For which, of course, they got yelled at.

"With how slowly you slugs move, maybe you need physical exercise added to your homework as well." That got a collective groan from the class as they redoubled their efforts and lined the desks up along the two walls, leaving a large expanse of space in the middle. Harry was reminded of their classes with Lupin, where the werewolf would give them practical applications of the spells they learned.

Perhaps Professor Genkai had a point; that they learned better by doing. He remembered more of what he learned in Lupin's classes than any other Defense teacher.

"Good," Genkai finally announced with a nod (which got a couple of nods in return from several students who took this as a form of congratulations for doing something right). She moved to stand in the center once more, so that the majority of the students stood around her in a rough circle. "Who here has had any form of physical training?"

The group of N.E.W.T level wizards glanced around, each looking uncertainly to the next to volunteer. Hermione, usually so willing to raise her hand, was glancing at others as well. With her smaller, scrawnier form, Harry didn't suppose she had much 'physical training', whatever that entailed. He supposed he had some, if running from his cousin for the majority of his life counted at all.

"I took a few years of self-defense." All eyes turned to Lavender Brown, who had hesitantly raised her hand. And she had reason to – half of the Slytherins began snickering, knowing Lavender's prominent reputation for giggling more than anything else. Ron glanced to Harry, eyes widened somewhat at the fact.

"That will have to do," Professor Genkai said, taking a step back and gesturing for Lavender to come into the center of the crudely formed circle. "Get in here, girl, I haven't got all day."

Despite her initial hesitation (who knew what this Defense teacher was going to make her do) she hurried forward (to more Slytherin snickers) and stopped beside Genkai, wide eyes staring at her in uncertainty bordering on fear.

"You look like a deer caught in headlights," the professor scoffed, turning away from Lavender, who gave a small sound at being somewhat insulted (though she wasn't exactly sure how) and glanced around for some form of support (the Slytherins were more than happy to give her the opposite). Genkai glanced through the students, eyes settling on one in particular that was hanging towards the back. "Get up here, Dimwit."

Harry turned, wondering who she was addressing, to find Yusuke making his way through the few students, easily coming to the center of the circle. He didn't seem to take any offense to the insult, and instead crossed his hands behind his head again, coming to stop on the other side of Genkai.

"What d'ya want, Hag?"

Hermione's gasp was audible.

Genkai seemed to take no offense at the title either, taking a step back so that Yusuke and Lavender faced one another. "That's Professor Hag, to you," she admonished, as if the exchange of insults was a daily chore she almost enjoyed. "And I want you to take her wand."

Lavender's eyes widened and she immediately grabbed her wand from her pocket: defensive of the sudden order Yusuke had been given. The others, as well, tensed, only to watch the replay of earlier events in the hallway, only with different players.

Yusuke disappeared, reappearing on the other side of Genkai, as if he had apparated without sound effects. Lavender let out an unbecoming squeak, clasping her hand open and closed, staring down in shock at where her wand had been seconds before. The Japanese boy, standing beside the professor with a wide, cocky stance and amusement clear in his eyes, held up her wand, waving it back and forth teasingly.

"What was the point of that?" Yusuke asked, turning to the old woman as he twirled the wand in his hand. "Other than to show I'm a great thief?"

Lavender Brown was still freaking out about how the boy, seemingly her age and less than a match in intelligence, had taken her wand without her even seeing him. Genkai, however, snorted, swiped the wand from Yusuke's hand, smacked him on the head with it (much to Lavender's squealing horror) and then handed it back.

"If I wanted a thief, I would have had Kurama do it, you moron," she snapped, though Harry was beginning to wonder if all this abuse wasn't really what it seemed. Something was telling him that he was missing the actual exchange between the two, as if they spoke by a code of insults and crude gestures.

He waved off the feeling, not exactly sure what his gut was telling him, seeing as these four boys (and now their teacher) had seriously thrown his instinct to the wind.

"Now pay attention," Professor Genkai began again, catching everyone's absolute concentration, silencing the hushed whispers that had broken out at Yusuke's movement. Harry hadn't been as shocked to see it, having seen Hiei do something similar in _Flourish and Blotts_ and honestly expecting something like it when he wasn't injured from crashing into the hallway wall earlier. Genkai turned back to Lavender, who was still gaping like a fish out of water. "First of all, if I tell him to take your wand, what the hell are you doing pulling it out? Giving him easy access?"

Lavender flushed and, near Harry, Parvati clenched her fists and frowned, clearly not liking the insults the professor was throwing at her best friend. She did not, however, say anything and Genkai continued, "So now he has your wand. What do you do?

The often giggly Gryffindor gave a puff of annoyance, but screwed up her face into a look of determination, eyes on her wand and hands on her hips. "Try and get it back?"

Professor Genkai nodded, glancing between Yusuke and Lavender. "How?"

The girl blinked, turning her head to stare at the Defense teacher as if she hadn't contemplated this question. Beside Harry, Ron blew out a puff of hair that sounded suspiciously like a low whistle. "Oh, this is going to be interesting."

Lavender chewed on her lip for a moment, turning back to stare at Yusuke, only a few feet away from her. With a deep breath, perhaps to convince herself of success, she lunged forward.

Yusuke disappeared in the blink of an eye and across the room, Malfoy let out a yelp as the Japanese boy suddenly found a place between him and Kurama. He was leaning against the redhead, who was less than disturbed by his appearance and more by the elbow resting on his shoulder, propping the short boy up (awkwardly so).

"Hey, Fox-boy," Yusuke commented without meeting green eyes, his own brown staying focused on Lavender, who was huffing with frustration and annoyance.

"He's apparating!" she whined, pointing her finger at him as she turned to the teacher, like a tattling grade-schooler.

Professor Genkai merely blinked up at her, meeting those childishly accusing eyes with her own steady, almost bored, brown ones. "No, he's not."

Lavender opened her mouth to argue but then stopped, blinked, and looked back to Yusuke. Her mouth open and closed several times before settling on remaining shut. With a pouting confusion that looked more pitiful than anything, she looked back to Genkai, as if for help.

It was Malfoy that broke the silence, still glaring at the Gryffindor transfer who had so rudely appeared so very close to him. "Well, if he's not apparating," he spat out, readjusting his robes and his dignity, "then how the hell is he doing that!"

Harry bit back the urge to comment; to throw an insult at the brainless prat as his followers nodded brainlessly to his words. Not everyone was like him, after all, and just because a Slytherin couldn't do something didn't mean everyone else couldn't, too.

It wasn't Genkai who answered, but Yusuke, who glanced to the kid for a moment. "I'm just moving," he replied by way of explanation, complete with a one-shoulder shrug. "Though, I'm probably moving faster than you guys can follow."

"You assumed he was as slow as you." This comment, by their professor, was not directed at Lavender (who blushed despite the fact) but at the whole class. "First lesson," Genkai called out, moving over to the chalkboard and picking up a piece of chalk. "Do not rely on certainties."

This was scribbled in crude handwriting on the board before she dropped the chalk, dusting her hands off. Harry thought he heard Yusuke, once more, mumble, "Oi, where'd the hag learn to write English?" but wasn't sure if he'd heard it, or only imagined it.

Of course, the piece of chalk that went flying across the room to hit the Japanese boy square between the eyes, leaving a yellow splash of dust, meant he'd probably heard right.

Genkai turned to the class (the piece of chalk mysteriously absent from the lip of the board) and dusted her hands once more. "You were all certain he couldn't apparate," here she turned to Lavender specifically, "so you took no measures to protect yourself against it. Well what if the anti-apparation spell was removed without your knowledge? What if you're not fighting at Hogwarts, where you so blindly think you're safe?"

She turned slowly in a circle, looking at each of them (and giving poor Lavender, who looked near tears, a break). "When you're opponent pulls something you aren't expecting, are you going to point fingers and cry, 'No fair!'" Several of the kids couldn't hold her piercing glare or biting words and looked away. She turned back to Lavender. "There are no certainties in a life or death situation."

Harry realized that there wasn't any anger or judgment in her voice, as he had first thought of their drill sergeant. Only a lesson that needed to be learned. Surprisingly, it was one the Boy-Who-Lived knew and with which he agreed. It was almost an epiphany: the revelation he had as he stared at the small woman before him who was teaching her students the first real thing they had learned in five years about defending themselves.

She was right, and Harry new it firsthand. There wasn't anything you could truly know when faced with your own death. When panic and fear course through you and desperation is your only option, you don't have any idea what will happen next, and you have to be able to fight, despite that.

For the first time since he had come to Hogwarts, even with all he had learned from Lupin and Fake Mad-Eye Moody, a Defense teacher was actually teaching them the basics of defending themselves in a fight not held in a classroom. And it made sense why she had told them no magic. They assumed it was their spells that would save them, but in truth, it would be their ability to think.

He looked at the old, Asian master in front of him and listened with a new understanding that this wasn't another Umbridge and he might just learn everything he needed to know. The Professor met his eyes for a mere moment, moving on to watch each of her students as several found understanding in her words.

"There are no certainties," she repeated, each word carefully and sharply pronounced, as if they would hear nothing as important as those four words. "There is only what your opponent might do, and what you _can _do."

Lavender was staring at her wide-eyed when she finally turned back around to face the girl. Immediately, the Gryffindor bobbed her head up and down, as if to declare her understanding. The professor made no acknowledgement, but continued on with her lesson. "So, the apparation spell hasn't failed. You're fighting in Hogwarts, he has your wand, and he's moving faster than your eyes can follow."

"That's not possible." Harry turned, surprised, to see Hermione regarding their teacher with mixed emotions on her face. There was something akin to hope (hope that this wasn't another failure of a teacher) in her eyes, mixed with the anger of how her fellow classmates were being treated, and the annoyance at the obviously ridiculous fact she was now countering.

Professor Genkai turned to regard her for a moment, looking from the corner of her eyes (which made it all the more menacing) before facing her completely. "Why not?"

Hermione gave a huff of irritation, as if a Professor should know this already. "No one can move that fast."

"Says who?" It was like watching a tennis match between the two (or a slower game of Quidditch).

"The laws of physics." Hermione's voice had grown colder, clearly not tolerating any more nonsense.

Genkai merely raised one fine eyebrow and smirked. "Girl, you're in a school for magic. I would rethink what you just said." As Hermione blushed, the muggle-born or raised students let out small chuckles, most of which they tried to hide. The professor turned to address the rest of the class, "We'll try a different approach, since this obviously isn't taking." She scanned the room for a moment, settling her eyes on a target. "Who would win in a race? This girl-" she thumbed over at Lavender "-or you."

The class turned as she pointed at Neville Longbottom. Beside Harry, Ron let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like laughter and which earned him a sharp jab in the ribs from Hermione. As fierce, brown eyes cornered every last person who held a similar reaction, Professor Genkai settled her gaze on Neville. "Well?"

"I-I'm a bit of a k-klutz, ma'am," the pale boy conceded, not quite meeting the shorter woman's gaze. He was fisting and un-fisting his hands nervously, never having liked the spotlight.

The teacher just shrugged. "That's all right," she replied, voice holding no real surprise as she thumbed over her shoulder to the tallest of the Japanese transfers. "So is he."

Kuwabara gave an indignant squawk as the eyes of the class turned on him. He rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly looking down as he toed the ground with his foot. "C'mon, Genkai …I'm not that bad."

Which got a response from Yusuke, resulting in a brief fist fight, separated by Genkai's harsh and biting command to shut it, and ending with the two grumbling at one another. Even after one day, it was becoming rather familiar territory to the surrounding students of Hogwarts.

"Back to the point," Professor Genkai bit out, sending a sharp glare towards the two (who immediately shut up once more). "So, Ms- ("Brown, Professor!") Brown is faster than you… ("O-Oh, Neville, ma'am. Neville L-Longbottom.") Mr. Longbottom." Constantly sharp eyes briefly glanced, in a reprimanding manner, to the Slytherin side of the circle, snickering as they often did. "If Ms. Brown is faster than Mr. Longbottom, why can't Yusuke be faster than her? However faster that may be."

Silence was her only response, broken by the shuffling of feet as each student held no answer to her question. When it was clear she would get no response, she spun around, making her way to the chalkboard once again. The students parted to let her through. "Lesson number two."

She paused, glancing down at the lack of chalk before rolling her eyes and moving away from the board with a muttered, "Screw it, you idiots can remember." Raising her voice, she repeated, "Lesson number two. Never assume your opponent will be bound by your limits. There will always be someone faster-" she glanced at Lavender, who blushed and looked down.

"Someone stronger-" she turned her eyes to meet Harry's, who found himself incapable of looking away.

"Someone smarter." Brown eyes landed on Malfoy, who straightened, pointing his nose to the air as he, too, met the professor's gaze. She held his eyes for a moment longer than the others before continuing on. "You might face this person one day, and you need to be prepared for what do to then."

Again, Harry couldn't argue. Voldemort was stronger and at least more experienced than he was; he hadn't been lying when he had told his classmates last year that most of his success had been due, primarily, to luck. And it wasn't something he would be able to rely on for much longer.

Professor Genkai turned back to Lavender. "So, once again, he has your wand and he's faster than you. What now?"

The Gryffindor opened her mouth again, paused, wavered, and then closed her mouth only to work her bottom lip between her teeth. After a moment, the pitiful look returned and she glanced at Genkai, eyes all but pleading for an answer. "I don't know."

But their new teacher wasn't going to hand over the solution. There wouldn't be someone standing beside them every time they faced danger, holding their hand and telling them what to do. So she tightened her voice back into the previous, commanding tone. "Look at the situation. What do you know about him?"

Yusuke gave a cheesy grin as Lavender turned to him, looking the boy up and down. It was clear that he was enjoying the attention, basking in the spotlight as the witch desperately tried to find an answer to her professor's question.

"Nothing?"

Genkai withheld the sigh of annoyance, giving Lavender an exasperated look. "You know nothing about what he can do. I asked you what you know about him. Use your eyes!"

The girl snapped to attention at the somewhat stinging order and quickly turned back to Yusuke. He was watching her more carefully now, though the amusement was still present in his expression.

"He's…a boy?" she guessed, looking back at the professor.

"Alright, there's a fine start," she replied rather sarcastically, moving towards Yusuke who was several feet away. "He appears male," she smirked at his annoyed 'Hey!' and then turned back to Lavender, "which probably means he has a weak spot here-" her words cut off as she suddenly turned and kneed Yusuke in the groin.

Several boys let out an automatic groan, but the Japanese student didn't say a word, having lowered an arm to block her knee, cloth connecting with forearm instead of more precious areas. Their movements had been quick, almost too much so to register and Harry had to actually give pause to the fact that they _were_ moving really fast.

"But," Genkai continued, turning away from Yusuke who was glaring her way in annoyance, "again, no assumptions." Yusuke once more interjected his resentment at the insinuation. "But keep it in mind. Now, you know one possible vulnerability. What else?"

Lavender, who seemed encouraged by the fact she had guessed right, went back to staring at Yusuke, her brow furled in the difficulty of her thoughts. She was chewing on her lip again. "He's…taller than me. And bigger!"

As she turned to Professor Genkai for praise, the old woman nodded. "Good. You're smaller; you'll want to use that to your advantage." Lavender nodded enthusiastically, creating a bobble head out of herself and earning several more discrete snickers. "Despite his speed, you'll fundamentally move faster because you have less mass."

Yusuke, who had been edging closer (wand still gripped in his hand) let out a whistle and dodged to the side as Lavender spun and tried to tackle him, hand outstretched to grab her wand. The boy jumped back, landing several feet away and grinning like he was having the time of his life. Lavender let out a frustrated huff from where she had landed on the floor. Sitting up and turning, she once more looked to Professor Genkai with an angry pout on her face.

"You said' I'd be faster than him!"

The teacher merely scoffed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes (maybe the dimwit wasn't so bad, in comparison to this girl). "You believed me?" she asked, letting the jeer become audible in her tone. "With no other thought; not one doubt that I wasn't lying? Or maybe wrong?"

"Or not telling the whole truth?" Yusuke cut in, moving over to her and offering a hand. She gave a small huff, some hair puffing up and out of her eyes before she took his hand, letting him pull her back up. He handed the wand back to her. "You won't catch me, kid. I've been trained to move with my larger body mass to counter a smaller person's speed."

"You assumed again," Genkai reclaimed the class's attention, staring at Lavender. The girl blushed, looking down as she tightened her grip on her wand. "You assumed you would beat him because of information I gave you and what your eyes saw." She turned to the surrounding students. "Lesson number three. Use your eyes, ears, and other senses, but do not trust them _blindly_.

"Think! That is the most important part of defending yourself." She turned back to the witch standing, ashamed, beside her. "If you aren't a body builder capable of taking the hits or spells, then you'd best learn how to think your way around them."

It was with that statement that the rest of the class understood the concept of having their wands banned. They all knew the spells that would protect them, but they didn't know anything beyond them. They had no idea how to think through their defense if their spells ever failed.

Or if they didn't have their wands.

"Fox," the call once more brought attention to Kurama, who stepped forward at the title, as he had in the hallway. Harry wondered, once more, how he had earned such a widely-known nickname in the group, but cast it off as an inside joke (possibly due to his girlish looks).

The class shifted slightly, giving the redhead more room as he stopped several feet from Genkai. The professor sent Lavender back to join the circle with a somewhat encouraging dismissal, letting the girl know she hadn't done all that horribly (which seemed to be as encouraging as the woman got).

When Lavender had once more found her place beside Parvati, Genkai turned to Kurama; the three in the center of the ring once more had the class's complete attention. "Tell me what you face when Yusuke is your opponent."

The class stiffened as the Slytherin transfer gave a small nod, turning to his black-haired friend, obviously anticipating their professor's wish for them to learn from the example about to be provided. Surprisingly, Yusuke immediately sunk into a defensive stance, legs spreading to a wider stance and arms hovering, as if uncertain of an attack, around his midsection.

Kurama made no move towards him, however, and Harry had to wonder exactly how much damage such a lithe form could inflict in the first place. "He has a stocky build, which will make him slower in general." With the redhead's first words, Yusuke suddenly relaxed, straightening back up and giving a sound Harry only assumed was disagreement on his behalf. "It is possible that he may be capable of running faster than I, but my movements will be fundamentally quicker with my lighter frame."

"You're calling me fat, aren't you?"

Yusuke's comment was ignored by both teacher and student, though several in the ring let out chuckles. Kurama merely continued, listing his friend's attributes as if he had spent some time analyzing the boy's defensive abilities. The fact made Harry rather uncomfortable (you don't spend time finding your friends' weaknesses unless you plan to use them). "He is shorter than I, so he's likely to go for weak points in my torso, rather than spend the extra energy to target my head.

"From his build and muscle mass, his strength lies in the upper body. Physically, I may presume that he relies on punches and only retreats with kicks." Kurama paused for a moment, taking in Yusuke with his intelligent green eyes, before resuming, "It is a bold assumption, but due to his obvious physical defensive capabilities, he is likely brawn over brains."

"Ouch, Fox-boy," Yusuke replied, raising his arm to mockingly grip his chest (getting several more chuckles from the students), "that one hurt."

Once again, Kurama merely continued, though there was a thinly veiled smile on his face. "He doesn't appear to have any weapons on hand, which means his attacks are physical, magical, or mental."

"Good." Professor Genkai nodded, stopping the Slytherin from continuing. "Hiei."

The black-haired boy appeared in the center of the circle, making several jump at his rather abrupt disappearance and reappearance. Three sharp pairs of eyes (two lions and a snake), however, noticed that Kurama turned his head to meet Hiei a mere second before the boy arrived.

As the redhead returned to his place beside Malfoy, his shorter friend wasted no time in getting to the insults. "He's cocky as hell," Hiei began, crossing his arms and meeting Yusuke's challenging glare with a nonchalant one of his own. "His stance and expression clearly give that way. He'll probably anger at banter or taunting."

The professor once more interrupted, stopping him from continuing. "And why do we care?"

Hiei let out a single syllable grunt, as if it was a question a child could answer. "An emotional opponent is an unfocused one and more likely to screw up."

Professor Genkai turned to the class, signaling another lecture. "Lesson number four: emotion in a fight is dangerous. A strong emotion will strengthen you, but be aware that it will also get you killed. An angry fighter is a hundred times more likely to make a mistake than a calm one."

Brown eyes met Harry's green and, once more, he felt as if she could see every mistake he'd ever made. Then she turned, meeting the eyes of others. "The moment you stop thinking, you start asking to get your ass kicked. So keep your heads in check and leave emotion for when the fight is over."

With that, she waved a dismissive hand towards Yusuke and Hiei, the two returning to the circle (one a little less pleased at the idea of being 'dismissed' by the old woman). "Pair up," she stated once the two were back in their respective places. "Today you are going to list the physical traits of your partner and how they will aid or harm you in a fight against them."

As students immediately sought one another out for partners, most confirming through visual contact and nods, Harry glanced to Ron and Hermione. The smarter of the two smiled and made an off comment that she would pair up with Neville, who was brought into the conversation by his name. That left Ron and Harry to be partners.

"I want only things you can deduce by looking at them. You will learn to start seeing things with your eyes before you attack or even try to defend against them." Genkai moved to the front of the class as her students paired up, awkwardly giving one another a few feet so as to examine each other. "Begin."

For the next thirty-five minutes, they tried to come up with physical attributes about one another that would help them fend off the other in battle. Several students found it difficult to take seriously, Ron Weasely included, what with the prospect of fighting his best friend.

Next to them, Kuwabara, who was analyzing and being analyzed by Yusuke (as harshly as the two could), just shrugged. "You're missing the point," he said as he mentioned that Yusuke's over-use of gel in his hair was definitely going to help him win their fight (though he conveniently forgot to mention how). "It's not about fighting your partner or friend, but learning to spot advantages and disadvantages in anyone, not just an opponent."

When Ron just scoffed, again asking why he would need to know Harry's vulnerabilities, the orange-haired transfer stopped his mid-insult at Yusuke and looked at the redhead. "Well, if you ever fight next to him, don't you want to know his weaknesses, so you can cover them?"

That shut Ron up, as well as awakened several of those around them (who had been inconspicuously listening) to the real reason they were doing this exercise. The majority of them took it a bit more seriously after that point.

It wasn't until the two were really struggling to come up with anything else (going so far as to explain why eye color was definitely a disadvantage in a fight), that Genkai declared that class was over (after asking (in a yelling manner) why they hadn't switched partners after running out of observations) and made them move all the desks back. The students quickly filed out, happy to be away from the drill sergeant.

Harry and Ron, just as eager for the class to be over (though the former was starting to see some light in it), paused at the doorway as Hermione, instead of leaving as they wanted to, approached the teacher.

"Professor Genkai?"

The old master looked up from the chalkboard she had been dragging back to the center of the room. "Yes, Ms-?"

"Granger. I was wondering…" Hermione readjusted the ridiculous amount of books she was carrying in her arm, trying not to seem forward, but still needing to know. "Will you be teaching us magical defense?"

Harry and Ron glanced at one another, ears perking up. Professor Genkai snorted, staring up at the girl who was at least a foot taller than her. "Of course, you foolish girl. This is a _magic _school, if you remember." Hermione blushed red to her ears at the reminder of their earlier debate. From the doorway, Ron was clenching his fists and looking ready to interrupt. "You'll learn to defend yourself without magic, then with. That way, when you lose your wand, you're not _completely_ screwed."

With that, the professor turned back to the chalkboard – an obvious dismissal. Hermione bit out a short 'thank you' and quickly turned, joining her two friends and the doorway and exiting the class.

"Well, that went well."

Genkai turned around to find Kurama standing in her doorway, Hiei by his side and her two dimwitted students behind them. She rolled her eyes, turning back around as the four filed back into the classroom, having left it only for appearances' sake.

"So what are you doing in England, Grandma?" Yusuke asked as he threw down his bag on one of the newly arranged desks and jumped atop it, swinging his legs slightly. The old master abandoned the chalkboard, turning back around to face him.

"I could ask you the same," she bit back, glaring at him and clearly angry about their little MIA adventure. "I told you, the day you four disappeared; Koenma sent me here." She mirrored her apprentice, crossing her arms to meet his stare.

"Ah," Kurama interrupted, drawing the younger of the Spirit Masters' attention. He came to lean against the same desk Yusuke sat on, crossing his ankles and arms as he stared calmly at their professor. "I had wondered if that was the case."

"You knew?" Kuwbara countered, staring wide-eyed at the fox. Green eyes cast him a moment's glace. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I only speculated, Kuwabara," the redhead corrected as he returned his gaze to the old master standing before them. After a moment, he gave a small smile, gesturing to their leader sitting beside him. "Yusuke did say Koenma was discussing the possibilities of foreign advocates with Master Genkai, after all."

Yusuke scrunched up his face, recalling the day they had disappeared. He hadn't exactly chosen to remember their conversation over the fact that they had been summoned halfway across the world by magical humans he didn't even know existed who then tired to sacrifice them to some pagan god or something. But, now that he thought about it, he did remember Genkai telling him she would be with Koenma, discussing something about foreign something's.

"And," Kurama was continuing, "With the Defense teacher's absence during both meals, it seemed only too coincidental that we not know her true identity until we met during the first class."

"I was actually _busy_," Genkai countered, insulted by the insinuation that she would purposefully miss a meal to heighten the suspense of their encounter. "I was investigating the mess you four made on the train last night and contacting Koenma this morning."

"You talked to Koenma?" Yusuke countered. He was about to ask if they were going home when another thought hit his mind, overshadowing the thought of leaving. "Wait," he started again, seriousness taking over his face as he jumped from the desk. "You left the girls _alone_?"

Hiei's eyes sharpened, honing in on the old master as his every muscle tensed at the realization that Yukina was unaccompanied at the temple. Unguarded. Unsafe.

Genkai regarded the fire demon for a moment before turning back to her apprentice. "Well, I was under the impression that you four would be there, now wasn't I?" she growled back just as accusingly, meeting her successor in gaze and stance. "And no, I'm not stupid like you." She straightened her countenance, turning her head away from her dimwitted idiot. "Reikai guards have been stationed at the temple and your homes since you decided to disappear."

"Hey," Yusuke argued, pointing a finger at the old master. "We didn't decide anything. We were taken against our will-"

"And that's just _so_ much better than agreeing to be a wizard's pet project, you moron!"

Yusuke was about to argue back, their words growing louder, when Hiei cut in. His tone was sharp and commanded their attention. "Who is attending to Yukina?"

Kuwabara, who might have been both concerned and defensive about Hiei's obvious obsession with his true love, was distracted by the mention of her very name and grew worried at the thought that she might be harmed while he wasn't there to protect her purity.

Genkai did not miss his dreamy but frightened looks or the glare Hiei was trying to split between the two of them. "Despite all your pompous beliefs, Yukina does not need retainers." As the full glare settled completely on her, she narrowed her eyes in challenge toward the fire demon. "Besides the Reikai guards, Puu is also with her."

It was Kurama who finally settled the rising tension, unsuccessfully hiding his smile as he broke into the conversation, "Ah well, in that case, I'm sure the noble warrior will protect her. We have nothing to fear."

Yusuke sent him a light glare. "I'd take that as a compliment, if it wasn't for the sarcasm."

"Hn." Hiei, too, seemed to relax as he crossed his arms and turned away, ignorant to the fact that he had matched Genkai's own dismissive movements. "At least he'll be pig-headed in protecting her."

"Hey!" Yusuke finally broke into complaint, waving his arms. "I'm _right here,_ you know!"

"On top of that," Genkai continued, ignoring the outbursts of her attention-retardant successor, "Yukina is not without the ability to contact me or Koenma, should something happen. Keiko and Shizuru have also been left with similar methods of communication."

Though this did little to comfort Hiei (except for the knowledge that in contacting Genkai, he would surely be informed as well), Yusuke and Kuwabara seemed to relax under the notion that their friends and family were relatively safe, at least until they got back.

Genkai just gave an irritated sigh, wondering why she had to choose such a dimwitted successor who had friends of equal intelligence ratings. "If you're done here, don't you all have classes to attend?"

Kuwabara and Yusuke groaned, slumping slightly at the reminder that they were still in school (something Yusuke had been spending three years happily avoiding). The thought of going and sitting through another painful class with another dull professor (and he had such a wide sampling, he knew the next one must be dull too), was not exactly an intriguing one.

"Hey, wait a second," Yusuke started again, coming to another realization as he looked at Genkai. "Is your surname really Mushayama? Wow," he commented, laughing a bit at the irony that the old master's name actually meant forest warrior. "That fits really well. I guess a name does define someone."

The look Genkai sent his way did not even begin to illuminate the regret she felt every day for having to deal with him. "No, Dimwit, that's just the easiest thing the Toddler could come up with that both of us would remember."

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 14_

End

-o-o-o-

Argh, I feel like nothing happened in this chapter! Not one of my favorites, I'm afraid, though I did enjoy the Draco opening.

I do apologize that I couldn't fit in any more than one lesson in (I was hoping to make it to Potions too in this chapter) but that's what happens with my writing. I predict that something will be six pages, but end up with twelve. I'm a detail writer and I like to fill in the spots between dialogue. That's not gonna change anytime soon.

However, as the first classes pass, class descriptions will simmer down and not take whole chapters (thank God). So just stick with me while I dole out the necessary firsts. Right now, the story is still progressing in its early stages and will pick up as the school year continues (we're so early on in the plans that I can't even begin to predict the total number of chapters for this story).

And would you look at that; we're actually updating this story like a normal author (this time it took me less than a month! The world must be ending, I tell you.)

**Author's Notes**:

_Had he remarked that it was a pleasure…placed him under the category of future minion…_ Here Malfloy is analyzing Kurama as Kurama analyzes him. The fox knows that, with the stance and attitude of Malfoy along with his clear position in the house, that saying "it's a pleasure to meet you" would put him beneath the boy, in Malfoy's mind. Likewise, on the other side, Malfoy makes note that had Kurama said "it's a pleasure" he would have immediately done just as Kurama expected. Both know when politeness is used to get what one wants, and when it can hurt.

…_Life was a game of win-the-witch…_This was me messing with Tug-O-War, Tag, and Wickedy Witch. In other words, Draco is saying life is a game of tug of war, and he's going to come out with the flag in his court (only, I wizardized it, since Draco is clearly above Muggle games).

**End Author's Notes**

Thank you everyone who reviewed! I really appreciate all the comments you left and hope you will be kind enough to do so again.


	16. First Day Jitters Pt III

**Disclaimer**: (because a reviewer mentioned feeling they learned something) Lessons taught by Genkai will, in no way, save you in real life. I disclaim any fact in this story as being applicable to the real world so don't sue me when you face a thug and try to win a fight because he's bigger than you and will, therefore, fundamentally move more slowly.

**Notes**:

_Updates_: Obviously, I did not make my update before school started…or continued….or ended, for that matter. Which is ridiculous, I know. Don't worry, the lack of writing pissed me off about as much as it could piss you all off. I won't get into the complications of RL (I had a really good quarter, I got bronchitis, I had a really bad quarter, I got bronchitis again, I spent a quarter in France, I was totally healthy, I drove my car from the West Coast to the East Coast and now I'm hacking up a lung. Again.) I will say I've slowed down with fanfiction. My mind usually lingers on original stories now, so it's harder to focus on my fanfics. I have to admit that updates will most likely be every three to four months, with school and a declining interest. I'm not ready to be done with anime and fanfiction yet, so my stories will still go on, but it's only fair to inform my audience that the going will be slow.

For everyone who has stuck with me, despite by horrible updating schedule and rough chapters, **thank you**. For my positive reviewers, I really, truly appreciate your support as well as constructive comments and ideas and I'm really glad you enjoy my story.

_Summary_: I realized how annoying it must be to go reread through past chapters because I take so long to update. Let me help you with the basics! The four boys have been whisked away to England by means of an unknown summoning spell performed by Voldemort. Rescued by the Order, Dumbledore takes them to Hogwarts, where they are hidden among five metamorphmagus aurors pretending to be exchange students. So far, their first day has gone off with several hitches, including a run in with Professor Mushayama, really Genkai sent by Koenma and suspicions by Harry 'N Gang that they're really demons. A rough synopsis, but hopefully enough to jog your memory! Enjoy!

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 15_

First Day Jitters Pt. III (Known Side Effects: Unexplainable Explanations, Relative Revelations and Covert Covenants. If Symptoms Last Longer Than Four Hours, Seek Immediate Medical Treatment.)

-o-o-o-

Earlier that morning, as the sixth year N.E.W.T level Defense students were being introduced to the woman who would beat the stuffing out of them and then replace it with the cold, killer instincts of a fighter (or so certain candy-loving headmasters might explain it), Dumbledore was heading to his office, a merry tune on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes.

He opened the door as he whistled, the sound trailing to an end as he discovered Rufus Scrimgeour standing in his office, staring at his prized phoenix, Fawkes. The new Minister of Magic turned to face Dumbledore, his battle-hardened eyes watching from beyond wire-framed spectacles.

"Ah, good morning, Minister," Dumbledore greeted, hiding the bit of surprise he had at finding the man in his office (uninvited, he might add) at such an early time of the morning (though he supposed there were earlier times to visit). "And what brings you here on such a fine day?"

"I got your letter this morning," the man replied almost tersely, lifting up a white envelope with green ink scrawled across the front (Dumbledore preferred using green. It was such a crisp and enjoyable color when contrasted with the creamy shades of good parchment). "The owl got conveniently lost on his way to deliver it. For two weeks."

The accusation was there, almost as plainly as if he had spoken it in words rather than angry chords. Dumbledore paid it no mind, choosing instead to play along with the man if he wasn't going to come right out with it (two could play at any game and he did enjoy the thrill of winning). "A simple mix up, I'm sure," he supplied, waving his hand as if to sweep away the fact that the owl had _conveniently_ mixed up Liberia with London. It was a mistake any bird could make, you know, and it was unfair to hold it against the poor avian. "Perhaps you should consult the post, Rufus. The owls seem to be losing their way more often these days."

Scrimgeour did not miss the insinuation towards his ability to act as minister. He was well aware that the enemy had been intercepting owls, specifically owls carrying important and confidential documents. It had gotten to the point where the coding spells placed over the letters were so impossible to break that their intended recipients often could not read them.

"Don't do this, Dumbledore," the man warned, his expression growing even colder than his original greeting. (One would expect that an uninvited visitor could at least be cordial about their business. Manners just weren't what they used to be). "Do not make yourself my enemy."

"I have no intention of being your enemy, Rufus." And the headmaster truly didn't, as he hadn't had any intention of being Fudge's either. But it's an odd thing about humans in positions of power; they usually fear that others in similar positions will become their opponents. Point of fact, Dumbledore had never made a move to be the enemy of either man.

He just knew he was capable of getting done what needed to be done. If they were capable as well, there would be no need for such assumptions. Like Fudge, Scrimgeour now had an entire magical community to look after and a war to fight (some might say he was better suited for one over the other). He didn't have time to keep Harry alive long enough to fulfill his prophecy, or to keep Voldemort from securing the aid of demons, or fulfilling a spell hundreds of years old that could likely kill them all if it was ever completed.

But Dumbledore did. Despite his aging body and mind, the old wizard fancied himself a great multi-tasker. He was quite capable of handling Hogwarts as well as the protection of all of its students – even the unconventional ones.

"Then why are five of my metamorphmagus aurors here without _my_ express permission?" The minister was eyeing him sharply, letter crumpling in his fisted grip. Unlike Fudge, he was not one to be danced around with words that might confuse and eventually drive him to give up whatever information he was seeking. Rufus was a warrior. He didn't like to play word or mind games.

He played war games. And he was a sore loser about them, too.

"Do not divide this ministry, Dumbledore. Right now, in this crisis, we need to work together!" The old headmaster was well aware that such an ideal situation would aid them greatly. It wasn't going to happen, of course. The ruling government of the magical community had certain priorities they placed above others; priorities that Dumbledore would never agree with. "I need to know what you know."

"And yet," the older man began, his voice losing some of its playfulness as he kept his eyes on the hardened ones across from him, "as always, the Ministry asks its subjects to work for them, not with them." Coming over to the Minister, Dumbledore smiled at Fawkes, giving attention to him rather than Scrimgeour. He reached out his hand as the phoenix let out a soft coo and bumped his crown against his palm.

"The needs of the country and the needs of this school coincide more often than you are aware, Rufus." Bespectacled eyes continued to praise the beautiful creature, purposefully ignoring the man beside him. "Until the Ministry can practice equivalent collaboration with the people it governs, the wizarding community will remain divided, with little help from me."

The Minister eyed him with distaste. Things were so much simpler when others just did as he said without question. He knew what he was doing; he knew what was good for this country and he knew how to fight a war. But far be it from the man across from him to concede willingly. "Fine. What is it that _you_ need, exactly?"

"I need five metamorphmagus aurors in my school."

"Damn it, Dumbledore!" the man swore, turning his back to the headmaster in his frustration. He gave himself a moment to regain his cold calm – the wizened man could be infuriating – and turned back to him. He had hoped to avoid wasting time, but it would seem that option was no longer available. "Well, you've got them already. Now what about what I need?"

Dumbledore gave a small nod of his head and a sweeping gesture with his hand, "Please."

Trying to keep the irritation out of his voice now that he might be getting somewhere with the headmaster, he replied, "I need to know why you have five of my aurors in your school. I need to know why you have an exchange program filled with five aurors but _nine_ exchange students." A thin, silver eyebrow was raised at him, but he continued. "I need to know what you know about the Dark Lord. Damn it, I want to get this country back to how it is supposed to be: prospering and without the constant fear of death!"

The man across from him merely smiled. "If that is what you want, then you need five aurors in my school as well."

Rufus, infuriated, let out a low grunt but withheld any choice words that came to mind. In a moment's time, his strategic brain had simply accepted that he was not going to win this battle. The old man was not going to tell him what he needed to know, as his predecessor had warned him (and he had already been somewhat aware). Albus Dumbledore operated in his own world with its own set of rules that would never be explained or understood by any other living man.

Hard-trained battle instincts told him that when one strategy fails, you change tactics. So he relented, hoping that in sharing information with the senile wizard, he might feel inclined to do the same. "We have had recent intelligence reports that the Dark Lord is attempting to coerce a new enemy to his side."

For one not suitable to word games, Rufus sure played them often. The smile on Dumbledore's face only grew more amused and less telling. "I'm sorry, Minister, but you'll have to be more specific." A thin, but wrinkled hand, waved about his temple, gesturing to his head. "I'm afraid in my old age I've lost my ability to solve riddles quickly."

The Minister did not miss the satirical paradox. "Demons, Albus. Do you believe they're real?"

The headmaster made a sound akin to comprehension, as if he had truly not known what the minister was referring to previously. "I have always believed that there are things in this world that not even our imaginations can prepare us for."

Rufus Scrimgeour was getting rather sick of indirect answers. "I'll take that as a yes."

The smile on Dumbledore's face grew, as it always did when the man knew more than he would ever tell. "Whether you choose to believe or not, Minister, it would appear we will soon be dealing with demons."

-o-o-o-

Nearly nine hours later, with dusk just beginning to settle and curfew soon to come, Yusuke let out a long sigh as he sank into the heated water of the large, communal bathtub. Water fed into the basin from multiple faucets lining the sides, very similar to their public bathing facilities at home (only these had about thirty more faucets and some funky water that came out of them). Beside him, Kuwabara leaned against the tiled walls, tilting his head back and staring up at the ceiling.

The four sat, soaking, in the large communal pool and idly discussed the day's events, avoiding any heavy discussion should someone come in. Some distance away, Bikou had been left to roam across the tiles. The shadowy fur ball was currently pouncing from puddle to puddle, trying to kill each wavering image of himself and occasionally pausing to hiss at the lightly sleeping Mermaid on the wall. On one occasion, she hissed back.

The four boys, having retreated to their promised bath after a rather filling dinner in the Great Hall, took the time to let out some of the stress formed from attending just one day at a crazy magical school. Yusuke, for one, was finding that he disliked the fact his three teammates and himself were separated into two different houses.

Beyond being unable to communicate during meals (they sat at tables practically across the room from one another) and in the sanctuary of their rooms (which weren't all that much of a sanctuary, considering they were shared with five other boys), the other students did not seem keen to have the four of them talking to begin with. It became very clear the few times the boys managed to seek each other out (whether at meals, in classes, or in the crowded halls between lessons) that the members of separate houses were not to socialize.

It wasn't so bad, they had quickly realized, between three of the dormitories. Though they were a little more refined when talking to members of other houses, the Huffles, Gryfith-thingies and Ravens got along fine. It was only when the Slithery guys came into the equation that the other students got testy. Clearly, neither the Slytheries or the other three liked the idea of exchanging conversations with one another.

And it was really starting to tick the Spirit Detective off.

Which was why he was glad that Hiei had pointed out the baths and Kurama had agreed to this evening activity. He didn't like being so separated from his friends, especially when they were in unfamiliar territory. And this school, with its ever moving parts and insane logic, was definitely unfamiliar territory.

"So how did your class go, Yusuke, Kuwabara?" Kurama asked as he cupped several handsful of soapy water and poured them over his dry shoulders. His red hair was tied up in a messy bun atop his head (with something that looked suspiciously green and vine-like). "The one you went to with Weasley-san?"

They had decided that afternoon, in Genkai's short counsel, that Kuwabara and Yusuke were not exactly the best candidates for attending Potions class. The two just didn't make a good combination when volatile liquids were involved. So instead, after a little prying at lunch, they had settled on following Weasley, as he had chosen not to test his mix-ability with volatile substances either.

In the end it was the right decision. Kurama and Hiei had their hands full between the distrusting professor and the academic expectations for the class. It had not gone well and he knew the greasy-haired man could prove to be their greatest threat, second to the one that got them into the whole mess in the first place.

_Professor Snape had finished his opening directions for the day in minutes, not one to waste time, when his eyes sought out Kurama and Hiei. He ran his pale fingers over the edge of their table, staring at them across its flat expanse. Black met with green. "I hope you can handle such an advanced class," he sneered out, shifting to look at the shorter of the two demons as well, "having no previous magical experience and being so very far from home." _

_The pronunciation on each word left no doubt in either of the detectives' minds that Snape suspected them far more openly than any other Order member. Neither said a word in response; Hiei regarding him coldly while Kurama held his gaze. He left with a sneer, off to torture Harry and his group of Gryffindor students, complete with the two auror transfers (a combination Kurama imagined to be something of a neon sign reading 'come pick on us' for the foul professor). _

_Hiei, cutting up the items needed for their individual potions – mostly under Kurama's mental instruction, seeing as there was no way in hell he was going to read a wizard's book (of which he had stolen two copies before class) – glanced at the fox working next to him. His knife was digging into the surface of his board. "Kitsune?"_

_His nickname alone was all Kurama needed to hear to know Hiei's thoughts. "Don't worry," he replied in Japanese, also aware that Hiei's choice of language indicated a choice of topic as well. "I've already made sure the potion will be imperfect."_

_Hiei didn't ask, assuming it had something to do with the amount of plants they were cutting up and putting into their black pots (this was a seriously retarded subject) and merely accepted his answer. He had known Kurama was not so prideful that he would make the mistake of trying to show the professor up. _

_He scooped the last of the…well, honestly, he didn't know what it was, into his black pot. Kurama had called it 'merdlap' or something, but it looked like slimy tentacles and smelled like the Detective's bedroom. Glancing once more to his partner, he grabbed the next ingredient. "He's suspicious."_

_Green eyes glanced across the room to the professor currently attacking the Gryffindor table with questions and accusations they would never be able to answer or defend against. "I'm aware." He, too, emptied the last of his Murtlap into the cauldron, his sharp blade dragging across the cutting board. _

_The two finished the class in silence, but Hiei didn't miss Kurama's subtle annoyance (a crack only he would ever see in the Fox's carefully crafted mask) when Snape merely sneered at his cloudy white potion. In the end, only Hermione's had turned the appropriate opaque, pearl color._

Kurama let out a soft sigh, mostly under his breath, as he ran wet hands over his arms, letting his muscles relax in the soapy water. He was glad that Yusuke and Kuwabara had agreed to follow Weasley. He was quite sure that with Yusuke's current disposition (he had always been defensive when his teammates were in a precarious situation, but in the last three weeks, Yusuke had gotten particularly protective) he might have verbally assaulted Professor Snape, if not more. The last thing the four needed was a deeper hole to dig themselves out of, especially with the most wary of professors already watching them.

At the mention of their class, Kuwabara sat up straighter and got this sort of giddy look to his eyes but it was Yusuke who shrugged and answered, "Kinda' boring, actually. Hey, that reminds me, you have my stick-thingy, right?" Kurama raised an eyebrow at him. "The one Olive sent at breakfast?"

The fox merely gave a smile (the one Yusuke had classified as the motherly, 'Oh brother' smile). "It's called a wand, Yusuke. And yes, it's in my bag. Do try not to lose it next time."

Retrieving the three wizards' wands from Genkai had been a different matter. The old master had been less than pleased and used several colorful adjectives to describe her annoyance that the three humans had not come for them at the end of the class. Her intimidating tactics and utter inapproachability, of course, had nothing to do with their forgetfulness.

Returning them had been simple enough, giving Kuwabara one to deliver to Mr. Weasley, while taking the remaining two to Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy. The former received his graciously, with a blush and a stumbled "how'd you get it back?" (To which the fox appropriately timed his half-finished reply to coincide with the entrance of their professor and, thereby, never truly answered) while the latter of the two merely took his with a silent nod.

Kurama was somewhat pleased with his standing with the blonde boy: a current level of mutual understanding that could develop into trust and a tentative friendship that might further their desperate need for knowledge on the Dark Lord. The fox was no idiot (and he barely needed half an ear open to learn how closely the Malfoy family was linked to Voldemort). He was not above using the boy to discover the truth behind their summoning and, while he saw much of the brat in the Slytherin child, he also saw the desperation to be something more. Desperation he could easily feed to further his own purposes and, if everything went as he hoped, further the boy's needs as well.

"I didn't lose it, I left it with you. There's definitely a difference," Yusuke argued, bringing the fox back to his previous thoughts on wands. "And it's not like I really needed it. Though," he scratched the corner of his mouth, "I kinda' got scolded for not having it in Division class. But that professor's loony."

There was a long pause (Kuwabara still looking like he wanted to comment on something) while Kurama tried to figure out what Yusuke had really meant. The options were Arithmacy (though he highly doubted Weasley-san had chosen that as a substitute to Potions) and the only other class he suspected fit. "Do you mean Divi_nation_, Yusuke?"

The teen nodded, rolling his head back to rest it on the tiles. "Yeah. Kuwabara's actually pretty good at it."

The orange-haired man finally burst, taking that as his cue that he could discuss the day's events. "It's really interesting!" he began, looking almost bubbly in Kurama's direction (as neither Yusuke nor Hiei were likely to care or even pay attention). "They really study the ability to see the future!"

Kurama smiled at his friend's excitement. "I imagine you are rather good at it, then," he commented, making Kuwabara blush like a praised child might and mutter that he wasn't all that good. "Ah, but with your spiritual sixth-sense, I'm sure you are."

Kuwabara just mumbled a bit more, not exactly used to commendation, what with the group of friends he chose to hang out with (and his sister, of course). Beside him, Yusuke picked his head up off the tiles as he remembered something. "Hey, fox-boy, remember Novus Orsa, will ya?"

The redhead just raised his eyebrows at the boy. "I beg your pardon?"

"Norvas Osa. It's our password."

"That's all well and good," Kurama had already guessed what the two words most likely were and there was a strange amusement in his eyes as he regarded Yusuke, "but why are you telling me this?"

"'Cuz you'll remember it."

"I think that rather defeats the point of it being _your_ password." Beside him, Kurama could practically feel Hiei's amusement at Yusuke's newest idea.

"Yeah, but we won't remember it and you will," the teen again explained. They had already been forced to find other Gryffindors twice since that morning just to get the stupid words. Kuwabara had suggested they write it down the first time, when Ron and Hermione had sharply told him no. Not that Yusuke understood – writing it down seemed like a good idea to him. "So that way, when we need it, we just find you. And that's a lot easier than trying to hunt down one of the other kids' non-existent signatures."

In the ever-changing castle, finding someone on foot was next to impossible. Hunting them down with energy signatures was also next to impossible as none of the students had enough spiritual energy to emanate a strong enough signal. As it was, Kurama and Hiei were muddled and faint among the ridiculous amount of magical residue in the castle, but at least they were findable.

Beside the fox, Hiei gave a snort. "Brilliant, Detective, as always."

Yusuke chose to ignore the obviously insulting insinuation and take the words at face value. "I thought so."

Kurama merely shook his head. "So what was it again, Yusuke?"

The boy blinked at him. "What was what?"

Hiei snorted again and Kurama was trying very hard not to laugh at that point. "Your password."

"Oh…uh…" He paused, searching his brain for the answer. Hiei might have commented how he could hear the gears struggling, but decided to save that one for when the Oaf deserved it. "Orva Nosus. And don't forget it."

Kurama merely nodded, lips pressed together in a meager attempt not to smile at his leader and friend. "I certainly won't." Yusuke just gave a firm nod and took the following silence that filled the bathroom as a suitable cue to start a water fight.

-o-o-o-

The Golden Trio, as they had been dubbed by the majority of the school who either thought it unfair that they seemed to be the favorites in Dumbledore's eyes or loved the fact that they could always get into so much trouble with so little consequences, had waited until their house had fallen quiet before sneaking out of the dorms and meeting in the common room.

Harry unrolled his father's cloak, meeting each of his friends' eyes with a brief nod, before casting the fabric about them.

Lunch had been far too short to discuss everything they needed to (especially after a fifteen minute rant on proper teacher-student behavior on Hermione's behalf, dragging out to a thirty minute argument as Harry tried, weakly, to defend the foreign teacher) and dinner hadn't been much better (especially after a fifteen minute rant on future-past-lives-yet-to-be that could only be viewed by one with _The Eye_ when looking through a looking glass that your future life had looked through too or some dingbat explanation that only Trelawney could come up with). In the time they had gotten to talk between rants and other students too well-known for eavesdropping to talk around, the three had managed to agree upon a meeting with Dumbledore that night, before anything else could get out of hand.

They already had a mysterious new drill sergeant for a defense teacher and, while Harry had a certain respect for her (he could see she, at least, knew what she was talking about), neither of the three could really see learning to defend themselves properly from a teacher who was more likely to kill them all herself. On top of that (and contributing mostly to the 'mysterious' part) she seemed to know the four transfer students that didn't even know themselves until a day ago (and had somehow manage to deflect any and all questioning so that still no one seemed to know anything about them either).

Harry had struggled ever since their arrival with the possibility of the four boys being demons – evil, conniving monsters that would turn on them and side with Voldemort. Or perhaps already were sided with Voldemort. He didn't know a lot about demons (which was where Hermione came into play, already planning the next month's worth of Library trips), but he had begun to feel a little safer in the thought that maybe, _maybe_, such beasts weren't capable of innocent or friendly acts and that Yusuke and his friends were genuine kids.

Genuine kids who could just move really, really fast and kill shadowy demons with invisible weapons…Er, yeah.

With the introduction of Mushayama, his steadily growing doubt had deepened. Hermione had already pointed out the likelihood of such a random happenstance as four boys being magically summoned without their knowledge, followed by a very convenient memory lapse despite all of them knowing one another, and ending up at the educational center of the magical world (and only safe place left) where their old teacher just happens to be teaching.

When put that way….

And yet, despite all the odds stacked in favor of it, the growing feeling of doubt was still just a seed in some ways. Despite his friends' arguments, the Boy Who Lived could not shake the feeling in his gut that they weren't all bad. Maybe they were demons – or whatever – but maybe demons weren't as bad as they thought. Which was, again, where Hermione would come in. In between rants, bites of food, and their housemates listening in, it had been decided that they wouldn't come to any hasty conclusions without first learning more about demons.

Neither of the boys were looking forward to the (multiple) library trip(s) that decision entailed.

Before any such adventures could occur, however, they needed to talk with Dumbledore. From experience, Harry was well aware that the man probably knew everything they already suspected (and more), but he still couldn't go to sleep in good conscience without talking to his mentor and protector first.

If there were really demons at Hogwarts, perhaps Dumbledore could at least explain why.

-o-o-o-

Genkai opened the door to her private office and quarters to reveal her four students, dressed in human clothing with towels about their necks. Not that the fluffy objects were doing much good. With the exception of Hiei, each of the boys were dripping wet from their hair to their shoes. She stared at them for just a moment, taking in the water dripping off of their jackets and jeans.

"I've heard bathing works a lot better when you take your clothes off." The four sloshed into the room (well, three sloshed and Hiei just disappeared and reappeared across the room, as per the norm). She closed the door behind them. "I would have thought at least two of you knew as much."

"Ah, shut it, Grandma," Yusuke returned, for the most part ignoring the insult and shaking his head to try and rid himself of some of the droplets clinging to his hair. "Some stupid ghost with water balloons caught us coming out of the bathroom."

"He seemed to think we were not sufficiently clean," Kurama continued, peeling the soaking wet and now useless towel from his shoulders and hanging it over the guard by the fireplace. Hiei, who was perfectly dry and looked rather comfortable, settled against the hearth of the fire, one leg bent against the stone wall and arms crossed over his chest. The fox sent him a light glare; the fire demon had not been so fortunate as to miss Peeve's attack, merely fortunate enough to be a fire demon with amazing 'dry-at-will' super powers.

Genkai waited less than patiently (tapping her foot every so often) as her students stripped, or at least Kuwabara and Yusuke did. Her apprentice, who had already pulled off his jacket and shirt, was working on his shoes when he toppled over with a yelp. Kuwabara was tapping his head with his palm in an attempt to get the water out of his head.

It was times like these that the old master contemplated the remainder of her life and how pleasant it might have been had she _not_ decided to find an heir.

"So," she eventually growled out in her rough voice, "talk."

Their conversation in her office had been shortened to which class each boy would attend next and the time and location of this meeting. She had not gotten more than a brief explanation of what the hell they were doing in England and how they had managed to survive among a demon-hating race for half a month.

From the floor, her _brilliant_ apprentice snapped back, "I told you, it wasn't our fault!"

Genkai did not dignify such a well-thought out defense with a response of her own. Instead, she moved to the low table in the center of the room (Albus was kind enough to provide quarters a bit more homey to the Asian professor) and took to pouring tea from the steaming kettle into a single cup.

As they were settling, she left them in silence, instead focusing on her beverage, which she had requested the servants to prepare earlier that evening. It was still hot, something she actually liked about the so-called magic of the West. She did not get more than a sip in before grimacing and glowering down at the cup. Some things she didn't like about the West.

"House Elves," she harrumphed, chucking the beverage over her shoulder. "Damn gremlins can't make good tea worth shit." The tea splashed, as intended, on the logs and bricks of the fireplace, wetting the ashes with what substance had not been instantly evaporated. The embers bubbled and hissed angrily.

With a glare to the teapot, as if its steamy deception had been a betrayal, she turned back to the four boys, crossing her arms over her chest and making a mental note to find good tea in the near future. "Now, how the hell have you been walking around with wizards for a week?"

Yusuke looked to Kurama, eyes clearly expressing that he was not dealing with his psychotic teacher when she was in such a mood. Kurama gave him a scolding glance, but once more became the spokesman for the group. He quickly recapped the last week's worth of events, from the day at the temple to the moments leading up to her first Defense class. He explained that the wizards believed them to be humans previously under a memory spell (to which she rudely retorted that a memo would have been nice before she kicked Yusuke into a wall) and that their cover was weakly believed, but had gotten them this far.

"Well, it was a piss-poor lie, so I'm not surprised." Genkai waved the fact off with a simple shrug. At the window, Hiei's eyes narrowed as he stared out into the dark night. He was getting rather sick of being lectured by a human fossil.

"Give it a break," Yusuke cut in suddenly, echoing Hiei's own feelings with somewhat nicer words. "It's not like the rest of us could think of anything either. And we didn't exactly have a lot of prep time to come up with a cover story, Obaasan."

Genkai snorted, brown eyes turning to her disciple. She was well aware that the four of them had no hand in their disappearance – especially when they had been whisked away by a force they'd never dealt with by people they hardly knew existed. Still, would it have killed the four to find a way to contact them? She'd wasted far too many days on stress and misplaced energy and she would be damned if they did not pay that back to her in kind.

"I'm assuming you said nothing this afternoon so as not to ruin this so-called cover story?" She looked to the fox first, receiving a light not in return.

"I assumed you had a similar story, being a teacher here, and did not want to jeopardize it."

Well, she had to appreciate that much (though she had no reason to admit it). Koenma had asked her to come as a 'recommended teacher'. She didn't need the old man knowing that she was actually an exiled fighter currently harboring-slash-aiding three demon Lords (or one and one soon-to-be and one who-knows-what-the-hell-Yomi-will-end-up-doing).

"Eh, Obasaan," Yusuke cut in, his thoughts following a similar train as his mentor's, "are you some super famous demon-killer or something here?"

Genkai just snorted, crossing her arms over the table. "Don't be stupid, Dimwit. I've never left Japan before this."

The team leader's brow furled. "Then what're you doing here now? I mean, it seems kind of random for Koenma to get _you_ a teaching gig at some magical school in England."

Genkai relented, as the question wasn't a complete waste of air (for once). "The Eastern Minister asked Koenma for a representative. Dumbledore was looking for one to counter any demonic involvement in this little war of theirs."

Something in her explanation sent warning bells and red flags off inside Kuwabara's head and he immediately sat up from the reclined position he had taken up by the dying fire. "Wait, a human knows about Koenma?"

"There are a few who know about the Spirit World. Like us, for example." Kurama winced as he, too, attempted some of the westerner's tea. The cup was set back down on the table. "Eastern wizards are not an organized group, like here, Kuwabara. They learn individually or in small groups from masters like Genkai, rather than in schools. It is not a government situation in Asia as it is here in Europe, so the man they call the Eastern Minister is more like a representative – the strongest and wisest of what westerners would call wizards."

"He's a monk."

Kurama gave an amused shrug. "And the most pacifistic as well."

Yusuke, who had been leaning to one side, propped up on his straightened arm, switched sides. "So some monk asked Koenma to send you here so that you could teach these guys to fight against reiki and youki attacks, just in case Voldywart got some demons on his side?"

"More or less, Dimwit. Although it looks like he already has."

Her words caught their attention like a hook. Yusuke's head shot up. "What?"

The old master did not take her eyes away from that hard brown gaze; her own serious. "He got you four here."

"But," Kuwabara drawled slowly, thinking out the last weeks carefully as he met Genkai's gaze, "we aren't on his side." The statement sounded dangerously like a question needing reassurance that it was the right answer.

"You should be careful," was all that Genkai replied with, meeting each of the boys' eyes, from Yusuke and Kuwabara over to Hiei and back to Kurama. "He could be trying to change that."

Their leader just let out a long 'pffft' sound as he stretched, cracking his back as he did so. "Like that would ever happen."

Hiei made no move to add to the conversation, but he didn't fail to notice that Genkai was still staring at Kurama and the fox was the first to look away.

Luckily, as always, Yusuke piped up with a change of topic (now whether he realized the tension in the room and chose to change it or just had a well-timed moment of brainlessness, the world would never know). "Hey, Obaasan, you can contact Koenma, right?" Genkai answered his question with a stare, which he took as a yes and climbed to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for? The only reason we've gone along with this whole wizard thing is 'cuz we're stuck here! If Koenma takes us home then all our problems are solved!"

Genkai just eyed her apprentice for several seconds before turning her gaze, briefly, to Kurama. He just smiled: his way of saying _'I tried not to get his hopes up_'. Snorting, she stood, moving over to the desk against the far wall. She picked up a familiar looking case and brought it over to the table.

Yusuke eagerly opened it to reveal the blank screen inside. In seconds, it buzzed to life, a fuzzy picture of white noise. Kurama and Kuwabara gathered around, the fox turning the screen slightly under the pretense that there was a glare (in reality, over by the fire, Hiei gave a small nod in thanks, now able to view the screen inconspicuously from where he stood).

Seconds later, the white noise cleared with a small connecting click and Koenma's face came into view. The sight of him actually made Yusuke smile (that had to be a first) as the poor teenaged god looked so relieved he might just pass out on the spot.

"Hey, Pacifier Breath," Yusuke greeted with a grin. "You look like shit."

The junior god did, indeed, look the worse for wear. He had dark circle under his eyes, looked a bit paler than normal, and his hair was mussed as if he hadn't slept in a week. Or showered for that matter. Koenma just laughed, overjoyed that at least a third of his troubles were solved now that his tentei were all right. "Well, that's what happens when your lead detectives go MIA on some magical vacation for two weeks. The whole world goes to hell."

Said detective's grin widened. "Yeah, we missed you too, Koenma. Now get us home."

The junior god's eyes flickered for a second, looking almost regretful, before his brow furled into one of his more serious and troubled expressions. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Yusuke."

"What?" The word, chorused by both Kuwabara and Yusuke, echoed slightly into the machine. Koenma gave a weak wince, both at the bad electronics as well as the anger in that one word.

"I'm sorry, Yusuke, but I'm ordering you and your team to remain in England, as part of your next mission."

The raven-haired teen (who had been warned this would happen but was going to bitch about it to his heart's content anyway), raised a fist to the screen. "You're seriously making me rethink the fuzzy exchange we had going for a minute there, Toddler!"

Koenma looked less than amused, though there was still regret in his amber eyes. Despite all the crap they gave him, for once he looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Or perhaps he just needed to partake in that peculiar pastime called _sleep_, something that had become foreign to him for the ten days.

"These attacks aren't going to stop, Yusuke. A lot of innocent people will die."

Kurama could practically see the gears labeled 'anger' in Yusuke's mind coming to a stop. If anything, the detective really was a kind-hearted person and the idea of people dying never sat well with him. At least, not when said people were of the non-fighting, innocent type.

"So, of course, you want us to stay and be their heroes," he countered, though there was little true annoyance or sarcasm in the statement, despite the tone he used.

Koenma gave a weak smile. "That is what I hired you for."

Yusuke gave an irritated sigh, waving his once-fisted hand back and forth in a dismissing manner. "Yeah, yeah. Fine, we'll stay, but only 'cuz you're paying us."

Koenma frowned, eyes widened at the same time, to create a unique expression of both confusion and shock. "Wait, I'm not paying yo-"

"So," Yusuke interrupted, not letting the junior god argue (he could always bring up the fact that they had been fired. Twice), "what do you want us to do?"

The teen god sputtered for several seconds before sighing and resigning to the fact that, apparently, there would be a fee involved in this mission to be discussed at a later date. "I need you to protect Harry Potter, and those around him."

"Soooo," Kuwabara drawled, finally coming into the conversation as he leaned over Yusuke's shoulder, "you want us to bodyguard the _entire_ school_?"_

"Um…basically, yes."

"Oh, great, no problem there," Yusuke puffed out his cheeks, staring off to the side. "You know, it's only an entire magical castle filled with a couple hundred kids. That'll be _simple_. Oh, and did I mention it _moves_?"

"I never said it would be easy," Koenma countered, then leaned into the screen almost tauntingly. "That's what I'm _paying_ you for, remember?"

Yusuke stuck his tongue out at the screen.

"If you two are done," Kurama countered, causing both to pull back their childish antics, "is there any other part of this mission you'd like to inform us about?"

"Ah, yes," Koenma, slightly flustered for only a moment, shuffled through the papers on his desk, searching for one. "I need you to find any information you can on the spell that summoned you to England. We've got practically nothing on it here, but whatever it was, was bad."

Finding his paper, he held it up to the screen. Though the connection wasn't great and the resolution poor, Kurama could easily tell what it was a chart of. "No wonder," he let out in a bare whisper. He sat back for a moment, Yusuke and Kuwabara looking to him with raised eyebrows. Neither had gotten the reasoning behind the scribbles on Koenma's report.

"The spell that was used tapped into the foundations of the four worlds," Kurama explained. "It was what I was feeling the entire summer."

"Yeah, I remember that." Yusuke recalled the rather ill looking fox back before they had been pulled into this whole mess. "You looked like shit, too."

"Thank you," Kurama countered offhandedly, before returning to the screen. His eyes glinted sharply; it was a dangerous look that told his teammates the situation was potentially grave. "Koenma, was there permanent damage?"

The god shook his head, having lowered the paper during the fox's brief explanation. "No, but if that spell were performed again, there could be."

"Wait, I'm confused," Kuwabara interrupted, looking between the fox and the god. "What did the spell do?"

"Unlike our portals, wizards tap into all four worlds when they teleport or summon." Koenma folded his hands in a very stereotypical, diplomatic manner. "They, literally, enter the network between the worlds. Think of it as a layout of roads that connect the four worlds together. You traveled one of these roads when you followed Sensui to the Makai.

"Wizards are able to travel along them using their spells, but it can be dangerously unstable. Unlike energy-users who only use one road to get from point A to point B, wizards travel across all of them blindly and inefficiently. It is a flaw in the way they manipulate their energy, but they are unaware of it."

"This spell," Kurama took over, "wasn't just designed to summon the four of us. That would be far too random, not to mention coincidental. Wizards would have no need for four Japanese boys – even if they knew three of us were demons."

"Correct, Kurama." Koenma was shuffling through his papers again, pacifier moving at a faster rate in his mouth. "The spell Tom Riddle – that's Voldemort's birth name – used to get you here was targeting four individuals they believed could be located across the entirety of all four worlds."

"What individuals?" Hiei picked his head up at the sound of the fox's question. Kurama had carefully concealed it, and so it would be unlikely any of the others noticed, but the fire demon had picked up on his apprehension. His red eyes narrowed as he watched Kurama carefully from across the room.

Koenma let out a sigh. "We don't know. We can't figure it out. There are no records of any surviving spell like it. And why it chose you four, of all people…" Koenma buried his head in his hands for a moment, pulling his fingers through the knots and tangles of his brown hair. "I need you to find out anything you can about the spell that summoned you. Anything at all."

Yusuke, frowning at the obvious stress in his boss's serious expression, gave a firm nod. "We will."

"Koenma," Kurama cut back in as a squirming near his midsection reminded him of a certain shadow demon, "could the destabilization of the four worlds be the reason behind the kage tenge attacks?"

The junior god's folded his fingers together and he sucked on his pacifier a minute before answering carefully. "We don't know. It is possible that the summoning tore a hole in the incorporeal connections of the Maekai, but it would still mean getting through my seal. All our reports say the seal is intact.

"Now," he continued, brow furling and creating deep wrinkles across his forehead, "it could be that the hole is so small our readings aren't measuring it, but then…"

"There wouldn't be so many shadow demons," Yusuke finished for him. He tapped his fingers on the surface of the table. "And there were a shit ton of shadow demons on that train. And Bikou, too."

Koenma's raised eyebrow (and concern that they had made friends with someone named after a dog's nose) led to the quick recap of their newest pet and subsequent adventures with said pet. Throughout the explanation, Koenma's frown deepened.

"And you're sure it's a kage tenge?" The team confirmed, deepening the young god's concern. "That's not normal behavior…Kurama, you say it treats you like a master? It might have something to do with the spell and…this 'Bikou' might give us more clues as to the nature of the spell. Until I can get a unit out to collect it, I'm going to leave it with you."

Yusuke filled in the small bout of silence with a sigh. That was the least logical and most idiotic action to take, so he really wasn't surprised at all. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"It's not my first choice, Yusuke. Leaving a kage tenge in a school full of humans? But shadow demons answer only to Netherworld demons…we need to figure out why one is suddenly listening to Kurama. And since he doesn't have a glowing cross on his head, I'm out of ideas."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." The detective stuck his finger in his ear, much to Koenma's annoyance. "Just don't blame us when it goes on a feeding spree."

"I won't blame you, but I'll hold you responsible for taking care of it." The muttered reply of 'figures' was ignored and Koenma continued with their previous discussion. "I'm afraid, for now, that the Maekai is not the cause behind the appearance of the tenge. But I'll keep looking into it. There has to be a logical reason for them to show up in England at the same time you four did."

"It probably has to do with the spell, too," Kuwabara mentioned off-handedly. "The one that got us here, I mean."

"Which is why I need you to look further into it," Koenma finished with a firm nod. "If we can figure out what Voldemort was trying to do, then we can start fixing it. Or at least start countering it."

"You got it, boss-man." Yusuke gave a mock salute, moving to shut the case and end the conversation.

"And be careful," Koenma hastily added, almost as if it was a second thought. "Whatever we're dealing with, it's dangerous."

Yusuke nodded firmly before closing the screen. He leaned back, bracing himself on his arms. "So," he trailed off, looking up at the stone ceiling of Genkai's room, "we're stuck here."

"We'll need to discuss how we continue from here on," Kurama commented with a soft voice. "There are a lot of variables to figure out. We'll need an explanation for how we know Genkai; we'll need to discuss what of our pasts we can mention to the teachers and the students; we'll need a contingency if the truth is discovered, and a means for finding information on that spell. Not to mention passing our classes. And we'll need to figure out what to tell Dumbled-"

A knock at the door interrupted his words and five pairs of eyes looked sharply towards the wooden intrusion. Kurama glanced briefly at Hiei, noting the purple glow of his bandana and an imperceptible nod, before looking back to the door. Genkai moved and opened it without much hesitation, revealing Albus Dumbledore.

"Ah, good evening, Genkai," he greeted cheerfully before peering around her and at the four dry, fully-clothed boys in the center of the room. "Ah, good, you're all here!"

Not one of them believed for a second that he was surprised.

"I had been hoping to hold a discussion with the five of you, pertaining to your first day." The old man gave a disarming smile, which the tentei remained guarded against. With a sweeping arm gesture, he motioned for the hallway. "Would you accompany me back to my office, perhaps?"

Genkai glanced to her four pupils, not one of them moving. "Something wrong with having a discussion right here, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore's smile remained, but his eyes seemed to flash knowingly, though not threateningly, behind half-moon spectacles. "As discourteous as it is, I would rather others not hear what I have to say."

Genkai gave a half shrug, giving off a strong impression that any answer Dumbledore provided would have gotten the same response. She looked back at the four boys and gave a sharp jerk of her head. Yusuke and Kuwabara jumped up while their two demon counterparts headed out at a somewhat slower pace.

The five walked behind (or in Genkai's case, beside) the old wizard, through the remainder of the teachers' hallway and up a flight of steps, guarded by two erect suits of armor (which Kuwabara swore were staring at them). Yusuke, who was walking beside Kurama, nudged him with his elbow.

"So…How much of that do you think he heard?"

Kurama glanced at him from the corner of his eye. They were deposited into yet another hallway, this one decorated with alcoves here and there, the farthest of which was occupied by a stone gargoyle. "If we're lucky, less than half."

Yusuke mulled over the words for a moment before leaning in to whisper once more, "And how's our luck doing?" The fox answered with a look. "That bad, huh?" The detective shook his head. "Figures, doesn't it? Our first chance to go home and what does Koenma do? Order us to stay. Friggin' pain in my ass."

Ahead of them, Dumbledore stopped in front of the carved beast. "Sugared gumdrops." Instantly, the gargoyle sprang to life, leaping to the side to reveal a stone staircase, spiraling up into the ceiling. The headmaster entered the secret passage with the others following him. Kuwabara lingered slightly behind, eying the gargoyle suspiciously, yelping as its stone eyes shifted to stare right back at him. He hurriedly caught up to the others as the staircase began moving, much like an escalator.

Dumbledore's office had changed little over the years, not that the four boys would know. They examined the circular room with reservation, for the most part, though Kuwabara seemed impressed and Yusuke did let out a low whistle. It was exactly what one would expect a wizard's office to be – lit by candles and filled with books and items they could only guess the uses of.

The old man led them to his enormous desk, taking his seat behind it. There were five comfortable-looking chairs positioned in a semi-circle around the front, but the four boys were far more interested in the two items that lay atop the desk. Two masks, pure white and scrawled in designs of black and blue, lay on the wooden surface, ribbons loosely curling around them.

The tentei exchanged glances.

Dumbledore gestured for them to take their seats, which all but Hiei did guardedly. The fire demon remained standing, arms crossed, next to the chair Kurama had settled stiffly into. All four boys had the same thoughts running through their heads. This wasn't a meeting, it was going to be another interrogation.

"Please, do not get the wrong impression," the old man started, keeping his voice calm and steady. "You're not here so that I may accuse or question you."

"Then why are we here, Albus?" Genkai kept her words short and clipped in that no-nonsense way of hers that had most humans nodding in quick obedience.

Dumbledore only smiled kindly and behind half-moon spectacles, his eyes seemed to twinkle. "To talk, in the most cordial manner possible." Wrinkled hands lifted off the desk's shiny surface to settle atop porcelain. "I wish to be honest, and I am hoping for some honesty in return. I am not asking for secrets, merely for cooperation and understanding.

"I know that you are more than you appear to be." The words were carefully said; they weren't guarded, per se, but cautious, as if afraid to overstep a boundary. And he was correct to be wary. Wizards had a long history of war against demons. It's not to say demons were necessarily the victims, as in their very nature they were violent, but there was a long-standing record of wizards summoning demons for their own purposes – purposes that often ended in blood and pain. The two races had never gotten along, and it was a well known fact that they usually killed each other on site.

"But your real identities are not my place or my concern. I am worried only for the safety of my students." The old man stood, pacing slightly behind his desk. It was a far more unguarded movement, one he hoped would show his five guests that he was sincere in this peace offering. "Please allow me to be blunt; I feel we will reach a quicker understanding that way. What you are is no business of mine, and I would not ask you to reveal or explain it. I brought you to this school in hopes of protecting you from Voldemort, but also to keep you away from his influence."

Kurama shifted, folding one of his legs over the other. "You assume we will join his side."

Dumbledore paused, meeting the very wise and dangerous eyes of a very young man. "I do not assume, but I must take precautions. As unpleasant as it is, we are waging a war, and we must watch our friends as closely as our enemies."

The fox's head tilted slightly to the side, a tell-tale sign that his opponent had slipped up. "It is presumptuous for you to call us friends while confessing your fear of us being your enemy."

"An ally, then." Dumbledore stopped his pacing, meeting the fierce green gaze with his own hard eyes, still somehow kind behind his glasses.

"And what would this alliance cost us?"

The four others in the room let Kurama handle the so-called negotiations. Genkai was sitting back to enjoy the show with a wary ear because this was not her fight. By the way Dumbledore was addressing the four boys, she safely assumed her humanity was not under question. Part of her imagined she'd only been asked to come along as a 'guardian' of the four boys. What Dumbledore was sure to be figuring out (and most likely already assumed) was that these four boys were beyond any need of supervision.

"Your neutrality."

Yusuke, for the most part, was following the conversation pretty well. It was almost like a tennis match, watching one hit a response right back to the other. He was never one for word games, not like Kurama, or even Hiei. He preferred when it was laid out before him in clean, simple ways. Like with fists. Nothing really complicated or hidden about a punch to the face. That pretty much spells out "I don't like you" in one movement with no complications.

"You would ask us to join your side."

Kuwabara was actually following along almost perfectly. He wasn't one for the fancy talk, but he wasn't as clueless as everyone simply assumed. He'd matured in the years since he'd first joined Yusuke as a Spirit Detective. No, he didn't always get things on the first go around and he wasn't going to be valedictorian anytime soon, or have his face appear on the cover of Time Magazine, but he had an intelligence of his own, and he knew from experience how to follow his teammate's negotiations.

"I would ask you not to join his. Any assistance you give us will be voluntary, but you would be surrendering the choice to aid our enemies."

Hiei was playing the usual _I'm-paying-no-attention_ act, but was, in fact, keeping a very close eye on the debate. Kurama was in his element, but the wizard was clearly just as adequate a player. He got the feeling the old man had good intentions, and from the brief surface thoughts he could scrape up (Dumbledore actually kept a decent mental hold on his mind), the headmaster was hoping for an honest alliance that might secure the safety of his students, and especially, Harry Potter.

"Bindingly?" Hiei tensed at that word, red eyes darting down to Kurama, but the fox was perfectly calm. A binding contract was not something he wanted to get into with a wizard. He already had enough to worry about with the stupid werewolf Kurama had blindly trusted.

"Verbally." Red eyes snapped to the old man, instead, who briefly met his gaze before turning back to the fox.

Kurama, for his part, let out a disbelieving chuckle. "You would trust us on our word, when you already assume we are lying to you about our identity?"

Dumbledore smiled. "I stand by my word: who, or what, you are is not my primary concern. I believe a relationship must be built on trust, and one of us has to start it."

Kurama regarded the wizard carefully and for several long moments of silence. He glanced to his left, sharing a moment's look with Hiei. Whatever the two exchanged in silence, it ended with the redhead cracking a small smile as he turned back to the wizard. "Very well. What else?"

"A voluntary exchange of information. We are already looking into the spell that summoned you here, but an understanding between our two very different pools of knowledge might prove beneficial to both parties."

Kurama agreed with a nod but could sense that the man was not finished. "You have another condition."

Dumbledore lifted his chin, thinking over his words carefully. So far, the so-called negotiations for the four boys' cooperation had gone well. Upon beginning the conversation, he was not entirely sure what the outcome would be, but the spokesperson of the small group (he decidedly would not call the redhead the leader, for he had a feeling that title belonged to another) seemed favorable to the idea of an alliance.

The last part was what had Dumbledore most unsure. It was not below him to ask for help, he did it quite often. He just wasn't completely sure of how the four boys would take his last request. "I would ask a favor, which you would be free to ask in return. Call it a mutual exchange of help, when needed."

"You scratch our back, we scratch yours." Yusuke shrugged at the looks the others gave him. That was his interpretation of the old man's words, anyways. He met Kurama's gaze for a second. "Sounds fair to me."

So the fox nodded in agreement and turned to Dumbledore. "What's the favor?"

"To remain here, in this school, and protect Harry Potter." The Headmaster looked at each of the boys in turn and then Genkai. "And to teach them to defend themselves." The old master just nodded. She had already agreed to stay for the year, so she wasn't going anywhere. Dumbledore turned back to the boys. "You could consider yourselves as 'highly thought of' bodyguards."

"Notice he didn't say 'highly paid'," Yusuke mumbled in Japanese.

"Very well, then." The fox gave each of his teammates a brief glance, which each met with a small nod. They had no plans to join Voldemort and Koenma's order basically meant working hand-in-hand with Dumbledore, so the 'alliance' wasn't much of a stretch. No need to let the old man know it, though. "As long as my friends have no objections, we will agree to your terms."

The Headmaster let a large smile spread across his face and he clasped his hands together, taking his seat behind the large desk once more. "Wonderful! Now that the hard part is out of the way, might I suggest we get to the details of your stay?"

Genkai shifted in her seat, smoothing a wrinkle in her clothing rather than looking at the man she was talking to. "Our people think the spell utilized both Eastern and Western magic."

Dumbledore was already nodding his head in agreement while the four tentei looked at Genkai with varying degrees of questioning. Clearly, she had remained quiet throughout the talk, waiting for the two parties to come to an understanding.

"Our people?" Yusuke echoed, glancing to Kuwabara, who just shrugged right back and mouthed 'Koenma?' The raven-haired teen just snorted. "Well, since '_our people_' are in on it, I guess I can ask Hokushin and his gang. See if they know anything."

Hiei gave a nonchalant one-shouldered shrug as his leader turned eyes to him expectantly. "Mukuro's library might have something."

"With respect, Yusuke, your advisors are far too young to know of this sort of spell," Kurama countered, no longer worrying about guarding his words around the old man. They still had many secrets to keep, and they wouldn't outright say they were demons, but it was clear Dumbledore already knew. "Mukuro is more likely to have information, but Yomi has moved in the right circles for forgotten artifacts." In the background, Yusuke gave a very poorly disguised cough that sounded suspiciously like _thieves_. "I will send him a letter and see if anyone is talking about this spell."

Dumbledore was still nodding, though he didn't actually know who or what they were talking about. Part of him wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know (but the rest of him, a true Gryffindor at heart, was bursting with curiosity). "Is there anything you know personally about the spell that you might have withheld earlier?" It was a bold question, but he figured it was the reason they were in his office in the first place, and they had little time to beat around an overly sensitive bush.

All eyes turned to Kurama, who let out a soft sigh. "I know little about the spell. Rumors only, and most too far-fetched to have any truth to them." The old man regarded him with patient eyes and the fox shifted in annoyance. He didn't like the sudden feeling of being a child in the principal's office. His eyes fell on the two masks on Dumbledore's desk. "Whatever the spell is, those masks have something to do with it."

The Headmaster looked down, moving his hands away from the porcelain artifacts. "They are connected?"

Kurama shook his head. "They have an aura around them – the same magic. They are not connected to the spell; they are the spell, or at least a part of it. They have-" the fox immediately cut off, giving another shake of his head, as if having a private argument with himself. Hiei was watching him very carefully. "They're dangerous. Whatever that spell is, you need to keep those masks away from us."

Dumbledore was surprised at that, and straightened up. He hadn't thought the masks to be anything more than ceremonial, but from the stiffness in Mr. Minamino's words, it was feasible that there was magic he had missed in the masks and it could be connected to the four boys. He gave a slow nod. "They'll be put in a safe location."

"Guard them." Hiei ignored the eyes that swiveled to focus on him and locked his own on the old man. "If he's going to complete the spell, he'll need them."

The Headmaster let a scant breath escape him. "So it isn't complete." He had never even hoped to get that much information from the boys – he wasn't even sure if they knew. A weight lifted from his shoulders, though it remained heavily on his mind.

"Or faulty," Kurama continued, eyeing Hiei very carefully. It wasn't like the fire demon to divulge information willingly, and he had a feeling that the shorter demon was testing him. He knew Hiei didn't know what the spell was and was making blind, if not remotely educated, stabs at the truth. But if he said something untrue, something Kurama knew and would feel obligated to set right, then the fire demon would catch him in a lie. It was all a game, and Hiei was wagering the humans' safety against the fox's pride. Inwardly, Kurama cursed the fire demon.

"Please keep me informed if you learn anything else," Dumbledore concluded the subject, feeling the tension in the room growing and deciding they would move on for now. He'd already learned far more than he thought he would.

"We will," Yusuke echoed his earlier words to Koenma, though he was glancing at his two demon companions out of the corner of his eye. The two were radiating an aura that was not unlike an upcoming fight.

And then the tension was gone and the two were once more looking at the Headmaster. Yusuke mentally shook his head. He would never understand them, no matter how long he knew them or how hard he tried.

For the most part, Dumbledore seemed to ignore it. "Now, we should discuss classes. I would like it if you would remain in Mr. Potter's classes, perhaps spreading yourselves out to cover Mr. Weasley's and Ms. Granger's classes, as well as Mr. Mafloy's."

Yusuke tried not to smirk, but it was exactly like Kurama predicted. Kuwabara, on the other hand, was frowning lightly. "Uh…won't it be kinda' suspicious? You know, all of us transfers choosing sixth-year classes when we aren't that, uh, good?"

Dumbledore paused to admire the boy's comment and had to admit he was right, though he had already known of the problem. "Perhaps you have a point, Mr. Kuwabara. Choose a few that you enjoy, if you can. I would like it if there was at least one of you in each of their classes, however. And might I add that idle time outside of classes is discouraged. You're welcome to fill up your schedules aiding Professor Mushayama, if you'd like."

Kurama and Hiei had a staring contest for several seconds (filled with Genkai's mutters never to be called that again and Yusuke's thrill at spending more time with the hag), resulting in Hiei shrugging one shoulder. "All right," Kurama conceded, "We can handle the upper classes."

The two looked to Yusuke and Kuwabara, who glanced to each other and then back. Yusuke smirked. "Well, there's always cheating."

Kurama smiled at that and shook his head. "We'll work it out."

They wrapped the remainder of the meeting up rather quickly, as it was getting late. The six of them agreed to another meeting later in the week, to discuss which classes they would be permanently attending and many of the other details they decided could wait. As they had mostly kept their 'lack of memory' from the other students, it would be simple to keep playing the Japanese exchange students, and they covered a basic list of do's and don'ts.

As they were heading out, a sleepy Fawkes delayed their departure for a good three minutes, busy nuzzling a very irate fire demon's head. Yusuke was still laughing as they left.

The sound died, echoing slightly down the stone hallways, as Yusuke paused. He had been the last down the staircase, Genkai leading the group back to her rooms, and something had caught his eye as he was leaving. He couldn't be sure, but there were three very familiar auras crouched on the other side of the gargoyle. He couldn't see the owners (if he hadn't dealt with invisible demons before, he might think there were no owners) but he knew those signatures. He squinted, already some dozen feet away, as they darted into Dumbledore's quarters, pausing for only a second.

In that second, Yusuke was positive Harry Potter was looking right at him. So he shrugged it off and hurried to catch up with the others, Kuwabara already catcalling him.

-o-o-o-

Harry blinked. He was pretty sure Yusuke was staring right at him. And he meant _right_ at him, because he'd followed the three's movement from behind the gargoyle and into the hallway, not just staring blindly backwards at Dumbledore's office. Hermione tugged on his hand, though, and by the time he'd looked back to where Yusuke had been, the group was gone.

Hermione hissed his name, calling him to focus once more. Ron nudged him with an elbow. "Are we going or what?"

Harry shook himself slightly and stepped onto the staircase as it spiraled upwards. Ron gave him a look the three stepped off the stairwell. The redhead moved to go through the door when Hermione's hand pressed against his stomach, holding him back as voices filtered out from the cracked door. Voices they all knew only too well.

"-not allow them to stay, Headmaster." Snape's unforgettable voice was hushed into a hiss of a whisper, sending shivers down Harry's spine. On their side or not (to which he already had his doubts), the head of Slytherin had a scary way of sounding far too much like a Death Eater. "You know what they are!"

"I haven't a clue, Severus," Dumbledore's voice reached them, equally as soft but far more kind and wise. They settled themselves just outside of his office, careful not to disturb the slightly ajar door. Hermione removed her hand from Ron's abdomen and Harry pretended not to notice how red his best friend's ears were. "Unless you know something I do not?"

The hint in his words silenced Snape for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was far less angry, though still hard. "I have my suspicions."

"About Jaganshi, I'm sure? A puzzling boy, really. Fawkes seems to have taking a liking to him."

The impatience in Snape's change of topic was very obvious to the three children outside. "My sources suggest the Dark Lord knows less than we do about them."

"Peculiar," the headmaster commented, almost absently. "To summon four boys you yourself know nothing about. Though Tom has always been unpredictable and particularly deceitful, this seems almost reckless."

"He's been keeping his plans quiet since the attack at the Ministry." The information Snape gave seemed to be more out of confusion than confession, as if he, too, were trying to figure it out as he spoke. "I have not been invited into this particular…scheme, and I can't get any information about it. All I've heard is that he was assured by an outside source the spell would work."

The silence in the office was almost oppressive, even out in the small hallway. "A demon." The comment, not a question, was admitted so softly they almost missed it. The trio exchanged apprehensive glances.

"Perhaps," Snape replied, his voice having stiffened. "Which is why you cannot allow them to stay here, Headmaster."

"You would have me turn them away? Kindness and generosity may gain us friends yet, Severus, where anger and prejudice will give us only enemies." Dumbedore's words were met with a sure sneer that Harry could practically envision. "Besides, it is safer to keep them here, out of Riddle's reach."

"And Mushayama?" Snape countered. "What of her? You think the parents want a demon teaching their children?

Hermione's eyes widened slightly and the two boys matched her expression of surprise. They had not considered the possibility of the new Defense teacher also being a demon. Of course, now that they thought about the relationship between the four and their teacher, it made perfect sense. Ron's face, flushed with red, quickly drained to a pale green.

"I don't think she is one." Dumbledore's voice turned contemplative and trailed off in a familiar manner of thought that had little to do with the importance of the conversation, "I'm also unsure that Mushayama is her real name…"

"Headmaster!" Snape cut through the older man's thoughts, bringing him back to their current and far more urgent topic.

"Severus," the headmaster managed to sound exasperated and amused at the same time, "it is not our place to judge what creature makes an ally or a foe. A demon is the same as a man; he must choose his side, it cannot be decided for him. Not by birth or race or blood. If these four boys are willing to help us, then we should accept."

"And the spell?"

They could hear the Headmaster sigh. "Another uncertainty. The boys were able to tell me more than I expected, but they do not know its origins, either."

"If we're right, which I think we are, they could kill us all." Snape's contempt was nothing new, but the trio didn't fail to hear the concern in his voice. It wasn't like Snape to be worried about others. At least, not the Snape they knew.

"Then why have they not already?" Inside the office, Dumbledore stood from behind his desk and paced once more, as he had done not an hour before with an audience of five. "I sense no pretense of murder about these boys. At least not towards us or the students."

There was a pause in the conversation. When he spoke, Snape was quieter and harder to hear, "I still don't agree with your decision to keep them here."

"I understand, Severus, but they are safer here, and so are we. Mr. Jaganshi believes the spell is incomplete. Whatever it was meant to do, it obviously hasn't been finished, and it cannot be finished without them in a summoning circle – in Stonehenge, I imagine – yet another reason to keep them here, away from Voldemort's grasp."

"If that's what you think is best, Headmaster." Snape seemed to concede and the conversation drew to a short end. Hermione's eyes widened and she hit Harry in the arm, motioning silently that they needed to move. Now. Ron scrambled to his feet, Harry right behind and the three managed to hobble to the side just as the door opened and the staircase began to move. They froze immediately, pressed against the stone wall and praying they were completely hidden by the cloak's invisibility.

"We'll discuss protection for the masks with the others tomorrow," Dumbledore was saying as he escorted the Potions teacher out of his quarters. Twinkling eyes sought out the three students, and behind magic fabric all three flinched like children caught with their hand in the cookie jar. The Headmaster just smiled and patted the professor's back again as he started down the stairs. "Good night, Severus"

As Snape left, leaving a slowly closing gargoyle behind him, Dumbledore clasped his hands in front of his robes and took in the three students. "Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter. I thought you'd have learned by now it is very rude to eavesdrop."

Harry grabbed the cloak, pulling it off of his three friends and himself. "Sorry, sir." His two friends mimicked the mumbled apology, heads down in shame.

"Well, it's no use staying out here, now. Do come in." He opened the door to his office once more (my, he certainly had a lot of visitors tonight) and beckoned the three to enter. "Lemon drop?"

The trio waved off the offered candy (Ron had tried to take one but Hermione slapped his hand away) as Dumbledore settled against his desk, the surface bare of the usual papers and trinkets. The three stood before him, shifting guiltily, as he sucked on the muggle candy. "Now, I must ask you not to use your cloak around our guests any further."

Harry looked up in surprise, having not expected their conversation to start off that way. "Er…sir?"

Dumbledore smiled at the three. "I'm sure you might have noticed that they, like myself, have ways of seeing the invisible." Harry glanced to the other two, resisting the urge to say he told them so because he never actually had the chance to tell them so.

Hermione, ever the curious one, was instantly asking questions. "How? I've read all sorts of books on invisibility, of course, but there isn't an effective spell that works a hundred percent-"

"Ms. Granger, please," Dumbledore calmed her with a slowly waving hand. "If you'll let me answer?" Hermione blushed bright red and quickly quieted. "It's called aura reading, a little something I picked up on a trip through the East. I've been assured by Professor Genkai that it will be covered in your upcoming lessons."

That placated the smartest witch rather quickly and Dumbledore was left with Harry and Ron. "Now, may I also ask what you three were doing outside my doorway when you should be sleeping peacefully in your dormitories?"

The two boys glanced at one another and Ron gave the lead to his best mate with a shrug. "We were coming to talk to you."

"And what is it you wished to discuss?"

"….Er…well…" Harry glanced sheepishly at his two friends, unsure how to proceed.

Dumbledore smiled and took over. "May I presume it's the same topic you recently heard Professor Snape and I discussing?"

"Er…yeah, that would be…it."

"Well, Harry, I promised you last year that I would no longer keep secrets from you, and I intend to keep that promise." Dumbledore stood up straighter, moving off of his desk. "What would you like to know?"

Harry took a deep breath as his friends remained silent and unsure. "They're demons, aren't they?"

Dumbledore's smile grew and he didn't hesitate. "I suppose I should not be surprised that you came to that conclusion, what with your dreams."

"You can't let them stay here!" Ron blurted out, his skin having returned to sickly pale in five seconds flat. The headmaster turned to him, seemingly unsurprised by his outburst.

"I'm sure you heard me tell Professor Snape that we don't know what they are for sure, but even if we did, would that be what you really want?" Dumbledore turned to smile gently at Harry. "Do you feel that they are evil at heart or a danger to us?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but ended up closing it without speaking up. He glanced to Hermione and Ron, the latter of which had just as many words stuck in his throat. But the redhead got over them quicker. "Jaganshi seems pretty murderous, if you ask me."

"Perhaps," Dumbledore replied almost carelessly, still watching Harry through his spectacles. "Harry?"

The Boy Who Lived gave an almost apologetic look towards Ron. He never felt good arguing against his friend or failing to back him up, but he had to say how he felt. "I don't think they're evil and…I don't _think_ they're here to hurt us. But I don't think they're human, either."

"They probably aren't." The three looked up at the easily admitted words. Even with their suspicions, hearing the man confirm it, and so easily, was unsettling. "But they might be able to help us, and for that, I will not turn them away."

Despite none of them being a hundred percent sold, especially Ron, the three accepted the Headmaster's decision. They talked for a little while longer, mostly discussing their first day and what they thought of their new professor (to which Hermione toned down her arguments, but still protested, and Ron spent five full minutes disputing the four Japanese students analyzing each other like brainwashed soldiers). At the end of the conversation, though they had little information (and none of it reassuring) the three left Dumbledore's office under the guise of Harry's cloak.

The wise man's parting words still hung between the three. "If you have questions, might I suggest going to the source for your answers? You might be surprised by what others are willing to teach."

They snuck quietly back into the Common Room (through a very sleepy and dismissing Fat Lady). Despite the new information and the large desire to continue discussing it amongst themselves, the three were half asleep on their feet and yawning as they bid their goodnights and parted for their two dormitories.

Harry and Ron snuck quietly into their rooms and all but collapsed on their beds. The Boy Who Lived rolled over, staring up at the dark ceiling of his curtained bed. He could hear Kuwabara snoring two beds over and, somehow, it was comforting just how human that sound was.

-o-o-o-

Several stories lower, in the darkness of the dungeon dormitories, Kurama opened green eyes as a body slid in next to his. Bikou was pulled closer to his chest for the second night in a row.

"You're back."

"Hn." Hiei wasn't facing him, but Kurama waited patiently for his explanation. The two hadn't risked talking once they returned to their rooms, keeping any conversation mostly mental until now. Hiei had disappeared shortly afterwards, presumably to find a place to sleep. "The trees in this school…"

Kurama had to work really hard to keep the smile off of his face. "What about them?"

The fire demon shifted, annoyed. "If they're not trying to smash you, then they're trying to put you to sleep or poison you or _eat_ you- or talk and never shut up!" The fox didn't stop the laugh in time and he felt more than heard Hiei growl. "And why do I get the feeling you know all about them?"

"Well you're welcome to stay until you can find a non-volatile tree." Again, Kurama didn't bother mentioning the other unoccupied bed.

"Hn."

And when Hiei brushed against him like that, Kurama couldn't help but be glad he had encouraged the forest to be a little…difficult. Hiei, on the other hand, might have concurred with such a statement had Bikou not finally decided his personal space was being invaded (and that the pesky fire demon was too close to his master for comfort) and bit down hard, causing the two demons to spend the next half hour using Kurama's already bare amount of reiki (most of his human energy was tainted by his demonic soul) to purify the cut and Hiei's speed to find servants to replace the bloodied bed sheets without question, all while not waking the other students.

Screw the warm fuzzy feelings he got sleeping next to Kurama, so long as sleeping in a tree got him away from the warm fuzzy carnivore.

-o-o-o-

On the other side of the world, the sun was rising high on a solitary temple in the middle of the hills far outside Tokyo. In the courtyard stood two young and quite normal women and one giant, not-so-normal blue bird.

The taller of the girls flicked her spent cigarette to the ground, grinding the toe of her shoe into its remains. "I felt something real bad the day they vanished," she said to the other woman. "Nothin' since, though."

Keiko Yukimura tried to let her friend's words comfort her, but the truth was that they were both worried sick. The four boys had been missing for more than a week and no one had any information for them. Botan kept feeding them very poorly crafted lies, and when she eventually broke down under their threats, she couldn't tell them anything, because Spirit World knew nothing.

So, after getting nowhere with multiple threats to take things into their own hands, the two girls finally decided to follow through. With Yukina keeping the Reikai guards busy (under the pretense that she needed help watering Genkai's garden), they gathered Puu into the courtyard (ushering a twelve foot tall bird quietly was not an easy task) and were now pausing in indecision.

Shizuru gave a shrug. "What's it gonna to hurt?" She gave the big blue phoenix an appraising look. "Either it doesn't work, and Puu comes back after a nice fly around the city, or it works and we find those idiots when everyone else can't."

Keiko seemed encouraged by her words and gave a firm nod, hands clasped in worry. "Okay, you're right." She looked up at Puu, who cooed back her. "Come on, Puu. Find Yusuke, like you always have!"

Now, always is a strong word, especially applied in this case when the two aforementioned 'always' had been back when Puu was just a small tyke, and flying after his master wasn't that noticeable.

Not that it was all that much trouble now. He could do it – sure he could! Like he hadn't wanted to before! But the Old One would fry him if he left the Gentle Ice Maiden, as per the warnings she gave him the day she left. He wasn't to leave Gentle Ice Maiden alone. But…since Scary Smoker Lady and Slapper were there, he supposed that Gentle Ice Maiden wasn't alone….so he wouldn't get fried and he could go find Master now!

Yes, indeed, those were the large blue phoenix's thoughts as he squawked happily, flapped his wings, and took off in a swirl of wind and upturned dir.

Shizuru let out a long stream of smoke as the giant bird began to grow smaller along the horizon. Keiko, beside her, was staring as well, caught on the sharp edge of realization that dropped into the stomach-flopping chasm of failure. "You know, kid, we probably shoulda' climbed on first."

Beside her, Keiko just nodded numbly, realizing that their grand and desperate plan of finding Yusuke had grandly and desperately crashed and burned.

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 15_

End

-o-o-o-

So now Puu's on his way. We're getting there. Slowly but surely, we're getting there. I realize this was an extremely long chapter and I hope that's a good thing. Maybe it makes up for the long absence…well, that's a little extreme. Maybe it helps?

**Author's Notes**

…_I've already made sure the potion will be imperfect…_Contrary to popular belief/application; Kurama will not be a star student in Potions. Sure, he could be, but he's well aware that Snape has got eyes on him and isn't about to try and get his way out of managing perfect sixth-level potion when he has no magical experience, as per their little cover story.

_Kurama's annoyance: _Snape is fighting a no-lose battle with Kurama who can't win. He's challenging Kurama out of his own suspicions that he's not human. Kurama is refusing to fall into that trap. However, by not falling into it, Snape is declaring him either an incompetent or a demon that's worthless. Kurama's demonic pride is annoyed at the human's boldness while Kurama's human pride is annoyed because he knows he can exceed. However, Kurama is intelligent enough not to let it show or bother him. Only Hiei, who knows him well, would ever notice.

_General_: Alright, I realize that was an extremely wordy chapter with very little action. You've just got to keep hanging with me. I'm still in the explanation phase right now. If you look at it from the grand scheme of things (grand scheme being a 50 chapter story, or so) spending the first 15 in explanation isn't that major. I'm still setting up the story, so just hang with me.

**End Author's Notes**

Thank you for reading once more and I hope you enjoyed.


	17. Take Two

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own it!

**Notes**: Uh…none at this time (…that has to be a first…)

**Reviews: **Holy crap, I had way more reviews than I thought! Replying to them all took more than half an hour! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed and to everyone reading this story! (that includes you, Lurkers…I see you out there!) I really really appreciate all the support of my story and your patience with my god-awful updating schedule!

Please enjoy the next installment.

-o-o-o-

_**Keeping Quiet**_

_Chapter 16_

Take Two: The Second Time Around is Never Better

-o-o-o-

Two weeks. Two weeks since he attempted the most dangerous spell known to wizards and demons alike. Two weeks since he succeeded. And two weeks since his success ran off into the shadows of the Muggle countryside.

Children!

The Dark Lord was furious. Damn that Talmarac and all his lies! He was promised the Bringers of Life and Death and he got children! Had he not killed the senile old fool already, he'd certainly kill him now! Those brats were no gods – Hell, if it hadn't been for the wandless magic, he might have suspected them Muggles!

And now they were gone. Months of work that just upped and ran away. They were supposed to be under his control. Nothing in the spell indicated that they would be four rebellious, _fighting_ teenagers. Damn that Talmarac!

The appropriate men had been…disciplined accordingly. Their mistakes would not be repeated. Next time, the spell would be completed _correctly_.

After all, it wasn't as if Voldemort didn't know where they were. Any idiot knew where to look when something you wanted to rule the world with went missing… Dumbledore's precious school. No doubt that pathetic excuse of an Order picked them up as they'd fled the ceremony. He'd known as much before one of his Death Eaters came to him and spoke of new 'transfer' students. So the old fool had gotten to them first, but the Dark Lord would have what he wanted in the end.

It was long past time he brought down the walls of Dumbledore's fortress.

-o-o-o-

Keiko and Shizuru were nervous.

Well, one was nervous and the other was just chain smoking. Koenma had sent them a summons by means of Botan a mere hour ago, which was only a mere eight hours after losing a giant blue Spirit Beast. The fairy girl had then flown them, with little clue as to why they were going, to the Reikai (Keiko would never again scold Yusuke for complaining about Botan's flying skills).

They were now walking through the Hall of Judgment on their way to Koenma's office.

For anyone who didn't hear the name "Enma" and immediately come up with a tactical plan for choking him to death and then taking his throne (as a certain person might), the experience of being summoned was a nerve-wracking one. They had muttered back and forth during their walk (they had to wait until then, since talking was impossible on Botan's oar – they'd been too busy screaming). The best theory was that they were in big trouble for 'misplacing' Puu.

When the office doors opened, however, they weren't alone with the Junior God. Lady Mukuro stood before Koenma's desk, hands spread across the surface as she leaned threateningly over it to yell at the prince. Keiko easily recognized her from Yusuke's descriptions. He was right; she was just as scary as he had said.

From her demands to return Hiei immediately (interspersed between several very colorful threats), the two women came to the quick and relieving conclusion that it wasn't about Puu, which was a good thing (except for the fact that the Junior Prince of Hell probably didn't know there was a twelve foot blue phoenix flying around somewhere). The downside was it meant they had no idea what it _was_ about.

Shizuru joined in the argument first chance she got, biting into Koenma right alongside Mukuro. The demon lord seemed surprised for a moment – the gall of a human – before giving an approving smirk and continuing with the roast. When the Godling started biting back, since he wasn't exactly taking it from Mukuro, either, Keiko jumped to her friend's defense, creating a triangle of arguing.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Silence reigned as Koenma slammed his hands down atop the desk. He gave a small thanks as the ringing in his ears died out and slid back into his chair, exasperated. "Yes, we found them, and yes, they're safe…for now. No, I can't bring them back yet… those are my father's orders."

The last comment was directed at Mukuro, who was already about to argue. She said nothing, but her natural eye glared dangerously at the young prince.

"Look, my hands are tied. Take your complaints up with the boys yourself." Koenma's blue assistant, Jorge, who had been slowly retreating behind his boss, scurried forward to hand them all slips of yellowed paper far too thick to be of normal quality. The three woman looked at the blank sheets, glancing to one another and then to the Prince. Red envelopes followed them and both Shizuru and Mukuro could feel the weak energy surrounding the items.

Only, Mukuro knew exactly what type of energy it was. She looked up at Koenma, an eyebrow raised. "You're kidding me."

Koenma smirked. "Just write whatever you want them to hear. Trust me, they'll get the message."

Keiko looked at Shizuru, clearly confused, but Mukuro had already put the paper down on the desk and begun to write with an offered pen. Shizuru followed suit, shrugging at the younger girl. So Keiko put down her paper, took up a pen, and started writing exactly what she wanted her missing friend to hear.

-o-o-o-

Yusuke Urameshi woke up that morning sneezing and knew, from some small corner of his brain labeled 'instinct', that it was going to be a bad day.

Breakfast was a normal event, mostly filled with the upper classman discussing Genkai's….unorthodox teaching methods. The first years had her that morning and, if being a new student in a magical wizarding school wasn't hard enough, most of them looked ready to hurl at the things they were hearing about their soon-to-be Defense teacher.

Of course, the mail arriving was an event to see, and Yusuke had a feeling it would be so every morning. Especially when that little bugger belonging to Ron speed-crashed into their table, spilling pumpkin juice into the half-demon's lap (and that's not to mention the bacon and eggs that went flying in every direction). Who even drinks pumpkin juice, anyway?

So, for the second day in a row, Yusuke's breakfast was cut short as he ran back up to the dormitory to change (which was ridiculously far away from the dining hall – whatever idiot designed the place obviously didn't take into account how dangerous stairs could be to non-morning people). Luckily, with Genkai's little introduction the day before, he could run pretty fast without worrying about cover-stories or back-up plans. Of course, he kept his speed down and tried not to run around any students who hadn't been in that Defense class (but most of them were in the Great Hall or had already heard of his so called 'talent', so it wasn't really a problem).

At least he got back in time to steal some more bacon (after running all the way to the stupid fat painting and realizing he couldn't remember the password and then running all the way back to Kurama to ask in overly hushed whispers that drew more attention than just asking would have, and running all the way back. He hated that damn woman).

With several pieces of the crunchy meat shoved in his pocket and a few more in his mouth (much to Granger's obvious disgust), he and Kuwabara followed the three, along with a small portion of their housemates, down to the greenhouses. Kurama and Hiei followed some distance behind with several members of their own table, including that blonde kid.

Apparently, today was filled with classes shared between all four houses (Potter had called them lizard classes or something). They had this class having to do with plants, and then a class having to do with charms (Yusuke was still teasing Kurama about not needing that class – the fox didn't need any help _charming_ girls, after all) and then a class about turning animals into things.

On the brief walk back to their separate dormitories the night before, Genkai had requested Hiei's and Kurama's presence at her second upper-level defense class, which happened to fall at the same time as the transfusion class. So Yusuke had suggested that he and Kuwabara go, as Dumbledore requested, while Kurama and Hiei help out with the seventh years.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time.

But after an hour of getting pricked, poked, stung, squeezed, and burned by god-knows what kind of plants they had been trying to 'prune' (and finally giving Kurama such a mean glare that the fox relented and calmed all of their plants, leading to a very confused teacher who couldn't explain why her usually volatile foliage was suddenly behaving and practically preening under the attention of the students) and then followed by an hour of repeatedly destroying the brooms they were supposed to make self-clean (after that, Yusuke couldn't stop whistling all day, though he couldn't recall where the song or the odd image of violent dancing brooms and a mouse had come from) to the point where their short Professor Flighty or Flitty or Flitwickered finally just gave them a feather and told them to try and levitate it off the table (to which Yusuke blew out a puff of air, watched the feather float away, and called it a day), and finally parting ways with Hiei and Kurama to head for stern Professor McDonald's class…well, after all that, transgendering just wasn't looking like such a good idea anymore.

And it definitely wasn't. An hour later, Yusuke and Kuwabara plopped down at the Slytherin table (to which no Slytherin dared argue when confronted with the obvious don't-mess-with-us faces or the dried blood splattered over their uniforms). Kurama, who had already been sitting at the table with Hiei for several minutes now (having been excused from Genkai's class once the seventh years got the hang of analyzing an opponent enough to predict and even block basic attacks), stared at the two boys in surprise, and something akin to relief that very few students were at the table, most just now getting out of class.

"So, we were thinking maybe you and Hiei could take over that transmutation class next time 'round." Kurama just stared at him, eyes going down to the red stains visible on the parts of his shirt and tie where the standard black robes hadn't covered.

"Okay," the fox relented cautiously, glancing at the either boy. "What happened?"

Kuwabara's face, already pale and slowly taking on a rendition of horrified shock, turned green. Yusuke shrugged half-heartedly, his own expression showing how clearly un-wonderful his day had been. "I blew up a bunny."

Green eyes widened slightly and red eyes actually focused in on the conversation. "I'm sorry, you did what?"

"Well, that Professor McGoogle-whatever-it-is asked if we could handle turning a rabbit from white to black, thinking we should start slow. We told her we'd give it a shot. No harm in trying, right?" Yusuke took a gulp from the pumpkin juice in front of him, from which some poor, unsuspecting Slytherin would later drink and wonder why he had only been served half a glass of juice. Yusuke grimaced at the taste but was happy to get rid of the previous metallic one. "So we did. And mine blew up."

"I cut mine in half." The mumble from Kuwabara sounded distant and numb. As a lover of all things cute and fluffy, he was rather appalled at the moment.

Kurama gave a cautious nod, not sure if an explanation was really the thing either boy needed to hear, but knowing what had happened. Yusuke had spent the last five years training his energy to blow up when used – to shoot like a bullet or act like a super-charged fist, exploding on contact. All he had managed to do was aim a conductor of his energy (the wand Olivander-san had made) and shoot a stream of his bullet-trained reiki into a rabbit. Kuwabara wasn't much different, only he had trained his energy to cut like a sword. They were really quite lucky they found out on a bunny and not a student. Kurama should have seen it coming and done something to keep them out of those types of classes.

"After that McGoAway kicked us out. So…Guess cheating ain't gonna' cover everything," Yusuke joked mildly, though it was clear blowing up an innocent bunny hadn't exactly left him comedian of the year. "So, uh…yeah, we were thinking you guys could take over and we'll try Care of Magical Creatures instead. Hopefully, no one'll ask us to blow anything up in that class."

Kuwabara nodded along numbly, still mostly in shock, and Kurama readily agreed. He and Hiei would take over Transfigurations, and anything else that might potentially end in some poor creature's death. Since the Newt level classes were a combination of students from the four houses, they could cover their charges without all four boys present at each class.

Kurama and Hiei had worked out a schedule with Genkai while the seventh years practiced earlier that evening. They would test it out this week, but Kurama would attend any of Granger's classes that the others weren't in, while he and Hiei would cover all of Malfoy's classes, since all of them coincided with Potter's classes as well. Yusuke and Kuwabara would attend as many of Harry's and Ron's as they could handle, including Divination with the redhead boy. All four would attend Herbology, since Kurama could help them cheat their way through, and then the Defense class, which Genkai had made pretty clear wasn't optional. In fact, from the way she had been talking, Yusuke would be attending most of those, if not all of them.

With the agreement that Kuwabara and Yusuke would not have to blow up any more innocent animals, or cut them in half, the two left the rival house's table with the promise of a much-needed bathing session after dinner. They rejoined their own table, sliding in where the trio made room for them. The sixth year Gryffindors, having witnessed the unfortunate events and McGonagall's wrath firsthand, took pity on the two and started up a small and relatively awkward conversation.

That is, of course, until Yusuke suddenly stopped eating mid-bite. His expression had gone blank for a moment before deepening into a frown, his eyes far away. Harry, who had been in the middle of another long talk about Quidditch teams and tryouts, which the Japanese boys had been avidly participating in, paused as well.

"Yusuke?" He frowned as well when the teen didn't answer, his lightning-shaped scar furrowing with his forehead. "What's wrong?"

Kuwabara nudged his friend, shoving him out of whatever gripped him. "What's up with you, man?"

Yusuke still seemed bothered, turning to his best friend with a look of concentration and confusion written over his face. "Do you feel that?"

"Feel what-" Kuwabara cut himself off, eyes widening as he swiveled around in his seat, staring out the large windows on the far wall. "No way."

"That's what I thought." Yusuke mimicked his movement, twisting his back to follow his gaze. He gave a brief glance to Kurama and Hiei, seeing both of them staring at him and obviously feeling the same thing. It was all the confirmation he needed and he let out an irritated sigh. "You've gotta' be friggin' kidding me."

"What's he doing here?" Kuwabara swung back around even as his shorter friend stood up and climbed off of the bench. Several nearby Gryffindor's stopped their conversations, watching the small group. "He's supposed to be with the girls!"

"Guys? What's going on?" Hermione stood up as well when neither answered. Both were already up and moving. "Who's here?"

Yusuke didn't bother with a reply, leaving the Great Hall at a pace that wouldn't draw too much attention. Of course, it wasn't his pace but the crowd following behind, as Kuwabara jogged after him and Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurriedly followed.

"Urameshi, maybe it's not him!" Kuwabara argued from behind as Yusuke pushed open the great doors, jogging down the front steps of the castle to the grounds below. "We're gonna' draw a lot of attention coming out here in the middle of dinner."

"Right, so instead you wanna risk the chance that it is Puu and he tries to go through one of those owl holes?" Yusuke pointed up towards the small, open windows high up the walls of the Great Hall. "That fur-ball forgets how big he is now, and I don't want to find out how many wizards it takes to pull a five hundred pound bird out of a window fifty feet off the ground."

Kuwabara acquiesced. It was too late to avoid drawing attention, anyhow, seeing as several other Gryffindors (mostly those known to follow Harry) were making their way down the steps, looks of curious confusion on their faces. Harry and his friends stopped behind Yusuke, standing on the grassy hill overlooking the lake below.

"What's going on?" Ron asked, a biscuit in hand on which he continued to munch.

"You'll see," Kuwabara commented offhandedly. "There's no way to miss him when he gets here."

"There he is." Yusuke pointed towards the horizon, but the trio could see nothing. From their tall friend's words, all sorts of conjectures were soaring through their minds. Giants, trolls, even dragons…or maybe even demons? Did they need to be worried?

Yusuke let out another groan. "Man, why couldn't he just stay where Genkai told him to?"

A graceful presence beside him alerted Yusuke to Kurama's appearance, Hiei in tow. "I imagine," began the redhead, eyes glued to the horizon as well, "that the girls told him to come."

Both Urameshi and Kuwabara gave him strange looks. Kurama lifted one shoulder nonchalantly. "It has worked in the past. Puu has an odd, but fitting, habit of seeking you out when you are in danger. My guess would be Keiko and Shizuru knew he'd find you, if given the chance."

There was silence for several moments, the trio still lost and trying to imagine what it was they were looking for towards the East. Yusuke finally shook his head. "But they have no way of tracking him, so how is that gonna' help them find us?"

Kurama's expression was one of amusement. "A small flaw in their plan, I'm sure."

Yusuke just groaned and turned back to the horizon, where a small speck became visible. Harry found it hard to believe that the raven-haired boy had seen whatever-it-was from that far away, since they could just barely make out the moving black dot. He was half convinced he was imagining it.

But it was certainly there, and moving quickly. Within seconds it had doubled in size, and then tripled, until the three friends could make out a vague shape of wings. In less than two minutes, it was close enough to discern as bright blue, even in the fading light of dusk.

A rush of air beside them alerted the four boys (and scared the crap out of Ron) to Genkai's sudden appearance. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to let Hiei roast him and then I'm going to eat him."

This did nothing to aid Ron's recovery as he mouthed her words to Harry, eyes round. For his part, the Boy Who Lived hoped she was joking. Of course, nothing so far had really given them much hope that their drill sergeant had a sense of humor. Perhaps they should warn whoever (or whatever) it was on approach?

Not three minutes after initially spotting it, a loud bird's cry echoed across the valley. Immediately, Harry thought of Fawkes' call, the two similar in sound. The one that bounced off the walls of the castle, however, had a very odd characteristic. Harry would have sworn it sounded _happy_. It was odd to be able to pick out emotion in a bird's call, but there was no way he could miss it as the loud screech sounded once more. Whatever was flying towards them was overjoyed about something.

As the bird approached, beginning to grow larger than any of the three wizards had previously anticipated (Merlin, the thing was huge!), students started flowing down the Castle steps, drawn by the strange, loud sound. Teachers followed, Dumbledore coming to the head of the group somewhere behind the trio.

Large, bright blue, and lined with a thick, black mane, the enormous bird pulled up as it drew closer, flapping teen-foot wings harshly downwards to slow its descent. Wind whipped through the students, their hair and robes flying as the beast grew closer to the grass. Talons the size of Harry's head stretched out, reaching for the ground as the thing touched down five or so feet from the four Japanese boys.

Yusuke started towards it without hesitation. Immediately, it ducked its long neck, head bobbing up and down, floppy ear like appendages bouncing in its wake. It, too, started towards the Japanese boy, half hobbling and half strutting on its short legs and dragging its fiery orange tail across the grass. The entire dance was accented by softer versions of the overjoyed cry.

Despite his previous less-than-thrilled comments towards the newcomer, Yusuke let out a laugh as the beast wrapped its long neck around him and began nuzzling and pecking at his hair and clothing.

"You big idiot," Yusuke admonished as he grabbed either side of Puu's face and bumped foreheads with his Spirit Beast. "You were supposed to be guarding the girls. What kind of watch-bird are you, huh?"

The phoenix gave a loud coo and flapped his wings playfully before butting up against his master's head. The small feathers just above his sharp beak ruffled back with the contact. Clearly, he didn't take Yusuke's words as the scolding they really weren't meant to be.

The raven-haired leader turned back to look at his audience, which had been silent but for the hushed whispers flying between students. He looked to his three friends, not really sure what to do now. Their cover was already mostly, sort of, but not really, blown (if it had ever been intact) and now it was definitely shot. Or so he thought. He'd been having trouble lately figuring out what their cover was now (or if they even had one).

Puu, who spotted Genkai, was trying to hide his face behind his Master's back, consequently nudging him forward as he quietly squawked in distress. His Master didn't seem to hear him.

"My, my, you boys certainly are full of surprises." Children parted to let Dumbledore through, the old man meeting Yusuke's eyes before taking in the large creature beside him. "Well, at least you keep things interesting."

It was an understatement of the year, considering they'd only known them for two weeks now, yet they had more wild and crazy things happening than ever before (which was an impressive feat, since they daily attended a school of _magic_) Harry decided not to comment, but beside him he could hear Ron muttering under his breath.

"May I ask who this is?" The Headmaster drew closer to the bird. Puu picked his head up off of Yusuke's shoulder to take in the ancient wizard. After a moment of observation, he gave another soft cluck and unwound himself from his master. His long neck stretched towards Dumbledore, stopping a foot or so short and bowing ever so slightly – an invitation.

The bird figured his chances were better with the nice-looking old man than the psychotic old woman who was sure to fry him.

Dumbledore chuckled, reaching out with both hands to pet the crown of the bird even as Yusuke answered, "Uh….Puu. His name's Puu." The leader of the tentei kept glancing uncertainly at his friends.

Several of the students coughed over badly concealed snickers, but Dumbledore merely nodded. He laughed as the bird cooed with each of his strokes, butting up against the old man and shuffling closer. His giant wings flapped every time he did so.

"He certainly is friendly, isn't he?" Dumbledore pulled back from the bird, leaving a happy Puu to move on to other prospects. Meaning he, of course, went straight for Hiei as soon as he spotted the much-loved fire demon and began nestling the foot and a half of black hair (much to Hiei's distaste-covered-affection). "What is he, if I might ask?

Yusuke cleared his throat, giving a shrug. "Well, he's…well, he was sort of a ….Penguin-like….thing for a while there, but then he got bigger…lot bigger…and now he's, um…well, he's…a…."

"Pheonix, Yusuke," Kurama finished. The leader had never actually asked what his spirit beast was, which was somewhat of a pity, since the form it had chosen was truly a representation of Yusuke himself. A fiery rebirth of loyalty, passion, and strength.

"Yeah…that." Yusuke rubbed the back of his head, giving a sheepish smile towards the headmaster, who only nodded.

"I suspected as much. I have a phoenix myself. Beautiful creatures. Though, I must say Fawkes is significantly smaller…" The old man chuckled to himself, thinking of his beloved bird high in the castle, most likely preening himself or singing in time with the Sorting Hat (the old thing only practiced his songs when the Headmaster was away, but Dumbledore had once mistakenly overheard the rag putting together a tune with his beautiful phoenix providing backup). "And how did you come across such an amazing creature?"

"Um…" Yusuke glanced towards his friends once more. "He's…a pet?"

Ron nearly choked, bursting out before he realized what he was saying. "Y-You want to go to Care of Magical Creatures when you've got that thing as a personal _pet_?"

The crowd of students laughed and the leader of the four boys just grinned, giving the phoenix a healthy pat along his thick torso. "This guy? Eh, he's harmless!"

Quietly, Kurama snickered. "And to think, Yusuke, he's a reflection of your soul."

Few had heard the statement, as was intended. Yusuke gave the fox a light glare anyway. "Shaddup."

"Well, I assume he'll be staying with us for some time, then?" Dumbledore gave the phoenix one more pat as the bird withdrew from Hiei, who was slightly pink across the cheeks (and trying hard to ignore it).

Yusuke gave a sort of sheepish grimace. "Uh, yeah, if that's alright. He wasn't supposed to just randomly show up like this." To emphasize his point to the big blue fluff-ball, the tentei gave him a light elbow to the side. Puu just gave a crow, shuffled his feet, and settled himself once more, oblivious to his master's attempts to chastise him.

"Very good, then. We'll arrange for his accommodations after dinner. I am sure Hagrid will be overjoyed." With that, Dumbledore turned back around to the very large group of students and began ushering them back inside. "Come along, we have a meal to finish and the food is getting cold. I'm sure Mr. Urameshi would be happy to introduce his lovely bird to everyone over the next few days."

The boy in question gave another grimace, this one far less pleasant, but nodded all the same. As the crowd slowly dispersed, the seven children left outside (Harry and his friends reluctant to leave in lieu of the newest and strangest development) and the one professor (waiting to teach the stupid bird-brain a lesson in obedience, which clearly was a result of his master's failure in that subject) turned to one another.

Harry fidgeted slightly. "So…is it really-"

Yusuke cut him off, stroking the side of Puu's face absently as the bird pecked randomly at his clothing (stalling the inevitable confrontation with the Old One). "Him. Puu's a boy."

"Er…right." The Boy-Who-Lived flushed slightly at his rudeness. "Is he…er…really a phoenix?"

"Uh..." Yusuke glanced at the bird and then back to the boy. "I think so?"

Hermione was already inspecting the thing, retreating only when she realized large, doe eyes were following her on a swiveling neck. "I've never seen one so big."

Puu curiously butted up against her shoulder, causing her to give a nervous laugh. Yusuke grinned. "You can pet him. He's really a big fluff-ball." The bird gave a slightly indignant squawk, which quickly lost all intended rebuke, as he began cooing under Hermione's gentle scratches. "I don't know why he got so big, though. It kinda' happened by accident, I guess."

Hermione accepted the information skeptically, but it didn't really sound like Yusuke was lying or trying to hide something. Like everything, she'd have to figure it out slowly and after lots of research, with little help from the four boys.

"We should return to dinner." Kurama gestured towards the diminishing crowd, most already through the doors of the castle. The others nodded, leaving the blue bird behind and making their way back towards the stone steps.

The four spirit detectives followed, Yusuke telling Puu to stay behind (several times, as the first few attempts didn't stick) where Genkai then proceeded to rip him a new one for leaving the temple unprotected, much to his pleading squawks. As they walked, the boys began discussing, quietly and in Japanese, what this meant in terms of the unprotected girls back home.

"I'll contact Mukuro." Hiei resisted the urge to vocalize his protectiveness over his sister. He didn't need the oaf jealously accusing him, as obnoxiously and loudly as possible, of being in love with his own sister. "We should not leave their safety in the hands of the Reikai."

Kuwabara, however, didn't like that idea either, and he was not shy to vocalize his thoughts on his beloved ice demon. "I don't trust men we don't know to guard my sweet, innocent, Yukina! Especially demons!"

Hiei twitched, somewhat for the addressing of his sister, a bit in light of the insult towards his race, but mostly because the oaf had a point. And he hated when the oaf made sense.

"Hey, buddy, two-thirds of the people here are demonic," Yusuke cut in.

"Yusuke, there are four us."

"Yeah, but Hiei makes one, and half of you plus half of me makes one together, and Kuwabara doesn't count 'cause he's human," the detective replied, scratching his chin. Hiei just shook his head and turned away, not wasting his breath on an observation of intelligence. "Anyways I think I can take care of this. I'll just call in a favor from some friends."

At the looks from Kuwabara and Hiei, he continued, "That we all trust! Relax, guys, I'm not that stupid. I'll just borrow that communication thingy Genkai's got and it'll solve all our problems until we get back."

His words brought about the realization that they were still rather stuck in a magical school in the middle of England with a not-quite-mentally-stable wizard hunting for them and now a giant blue bird on the side. They had quite a few problems.

With second thought, he added, "Well, at least this one."

-o-o-o-

"Can you believe he has a giant blue phoenix as a pet and hasn't said anything?" Ron pulled back the blankets on his bed, shaking his head. "Unbelievable."

His comments were met with varying degrees of agreement from the other four boys around the circular dormitory. Yusuke and Kuwabara hadn't come in yet. They'd actually disappeared after dinner, for the second night in a row. Hermione was beginning to get suspicious, and Harry couldn't blame her.

He figured two more days, tops, before she'd be suggesting they pull out his father's cloak.

As their dorm mates trudged out of the room to brush their teeth and use the facilities before bed, Ron was still on about Puu. "I mean, can you believe he didn't tell us?"

"You never told him you had a rat."

The redhead stopped his movements, staring at his best mate with wide eyes. "Are you crazy?" Ron's incredulous tone caused Harry's head to snap up, a flare of anger in his eyes at the words, even if he knew Ron hadn't meant them seriously. "A rat versus a giant – and I mean _giant_ – phoenix? Oh, and did I mention he was _blue_?"

Harry gave a sort of shrug, wincing at the strange ache that flared in the back of his neck. It had been lingering there all day, like a distant and painful thought he couldn't grasp. "Yeah, well, your rat ended up being a fully grown Death Eater and a murdering traitor."

Ron quieted for a moment, as if the truth in that statement was a revelation. "Well…there is that." The redhead shook his head. "But he still should have told us!"

A single twitch at the back of his neck was the only warning he got before anger all but consumed him. He rounded on his best friend, throwing down the sleepwear he was holding. "They don't have to tell us everything, Ron! Even demons are allowed to have secrets!"

His best friend stood, caught like a deer in the headlights, before his eyes narrowed slightly and he looked away. His cheeks puffed and his lips, a thin line, pouted in that brooding way of his. Against his sides, he clenched his shaking hands into fists.

As the seconds ticked by in uncomfortable silence, realization dawned on the Boy Who Lived and the anger drained from him. In hindsight, he knew that anger – that particular twinge in the back of his mind and the oncoming ache that had bothered him all day.

"I did it again, didn't I?" Ron spared him a brief glance but wouldn't keep the contact. Harry couldn't blame him as he, himself, all but deflated. He had hoped a summer spent berating his failures would force him to strengthen his defenses or, at the very least, make him more aware. But again he had failed. "I'm sorry."

Ron struggled with his emotions for a second before he gave a stiff shrug as he unclenched his fists. He looked about guiltily, disappointed in his own angry reaction to his best friend. "It wasn't…you know, _you_."

Harry shook his head, jaw clenching. "But that's just it, isn't it? It _was_ me. I should be able to control this!"

Ron kept glancing fleetingly at him, wary of upsetting him again but ashamed that he couldn't even look his best friend in the eye. His gaze fell to the floor before cautiously looking at Harry. "Do you think…do you think you should tell Dumbledore?"

The Boy Who Lived shook his head. "Not tonight," he mumbled, raising a hand to rub at his scar. "If it keeps happening, I will."

Ron nodded his agreement as Harry all but sagged onto the bed, still going at his forehead. The redhead's expression pinched into an one of thought. "Can you, er, feel…You Know Who?"

Harry glanced at his friend, somewhat surprised by the question but not against answering it. "Yeah, Ron." He looked back up at the ceiling, fingers tracing the dull sting of a lightning bolt. The ache in his neck was distant, but still there and the anger, faded, slithered through his veins like a snake. "I can feel him."

-o-o-o-

_Chapter 16_

End

-o-o-o-

Okay, so I actually got that out a lot quicker than I anticipated. I appreciate all of you supporting my horrendous updating schedule! I'm forsaking all my other fics for this one right now and if I don't stop it soon, my Beta's gonna kill me for not spreading the Muse around.

Thank you all for reading!

**Author's Notes**:

…_**Puu's Flight…**_ I wanted to know what a bird his size could actually make time-wise. So I found the largest bird on earth: the **Argentavis Magnificens**. These extinct birds had a wing span of 25 ft and a height of about 10. Roughly the size of Puu (what luck!) Scientists believe they could fly approximately 11 miles an hour. Now, assuming he sleeps during the flight (as some birds are recorded capable of doing, and since Puu is such an amazing bird, I thought he should have this ability), I calculated that it would take him 21 days to reach Hogwarts.

And that's when I decided to screw accuracy when dealing with a big blue demonic phoenix. He's getting there in a day!

…_**Puu's arrival…**_ Credit goes to **A Dangerous Notion**_. _I couldn't give you the arrival you wanted, but I thought I could at least give you a cameo. Hope you enjoyed it and thank you for the suggestion!

**End Author's Notes**

Please review if you would be so kind!


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